Band Members:
Matt Bourne - Keys
Chris Bussey - Drums
Andrew Plummer - Vocals
Chris Sharkey - Guitar
Colin Sutton - Bass

Bilbao Syndrome, a liberating sonic blast of contemporary metal and jazz skronk, is an avant underground supergroup featuring two members of Leeds-based death jazzers Trio-VD (guitarist Chris Sharkey and drummer Chris Bussey), internationally renowned jazz keyboard enfant terrible Matthew Bourne, John Zorn-esque noiseniks trio Minghe Morte's (with Chris Bussey) bassist/leader Colin Sutton and thoroughly imposing frontman vocalist and acidic wordsmith Andrew Plummer of World Sanguine Report. Bourne formed Bilbao Syndrome in 2007 starting a partnership with drummer Chris Bussey before the intensity and scale of their vision made it necessary to hire extra members. Clad in white, skin tight outfits, mirrored aviator sunglasses and powerfully lit with only UV lights; their live show is not for the faint-hearted. Yet Bilbao Syndrome has built up a strong and wide-ranging UK cult following. They now release their long awaited debut CD/vinyl on the Babel Label Bilbao Syndrome I-VI a confrontational and cathartic piece of work that seeks to combine the more extreme elements of metal, jazz and tightly structured composition, with Matthew Bourne writing the lion's share of the themes. The bulk of the material is driven by relentlessly shifting guitar riffs which bring to mind a Ritalin-addled Meshuggah or a more wantonly violent Shining, underpinned by massive lurching bass and nervous, offbeat-laden drum figures. Periodically the rhythmic intensity reaches a climax and the groove breaks down into scattergun snare blasts and offbeat stabs, rendered with a seemingly telepathic sense of timing, recalling the spasmodic assault of The Locust. Plummer's vocals vary wildly from demonic grunts and squeals, through powerful full-throated singing, to ominous crooning, and a charismatic presence that is simultaneously darkly threatening and outrageously camp. Occasionally the voice rises up to an eerily pure near-falsetto with traces of the melancholic unease of Scott Walker's later style. Matthew Bourne, an obsessive collector of vintage analogue keys, demonstrates they're not just to line his bedroom walls with organ and synths providing startlingly unusual timbres which are not content to rest within existing idioms. Rather, Bourne's keyboard parts have constantly shifting roles, from taut percussive stabs through to soaring, eerie ambient melody lines. Elsewhere we hear his abrasive electronic tones cascade over a jittering rhythm section to disorientating effect. Further curveballs come in the shape of sudden interjections of Painkiller-esque ambience, with synth, voice and saxophone trading phrases in free time, and the magisterial eschewing rhythmic density in favour of Wagnerian grandeur and hackle-raising bombast. The rules of metal allow for a certain amount of theatre, provided it is of the Dungeons and Dragons variety. Bilbao Syndrome circumvent the cliches of the genre to conjure a more austere, contemporary horrorshow which is guaranteed to be a divisive, ultimately rejuvenative presence in modern metal as well as well as setting the bar higher for the new age of jazz skronk.

For fans of Meshuggah, Scott Walker, The Locust, John Zorn and Alboth!