WINCE AND FRISSON - Liftoach Pandemonium (Music Video Premiere)

Written by: The Administrator 

It feels special to become aware of a band upon the release of their first single. This is especially so when said single (along with the total audio/visual package of the accompanying music video) is so blatantly intriguing. So exciting. So fresh. 

Wince and Frisson's chaotic and disquieting KÄRRHÄXAN​ was, arguably, the perfect first single. The listening/watching experience set the tone for an album rollout extremely well. After writing about said track, I have found myself revisiting the music video quite frequently to extract more of that delightful electrical feeling I had upon initial exposure.

But! After witnessing a debut, it feels even special-er to be invited to premiere a band's second track (plus music video). Which brings us to today's track (plus music video) in question. The ritualistically entitled Liftoach Pandemonium is embedded below, available for your listening pleasure/intrigue/discomfort several days before official release. As always, we'll be waiting on the other side of the fold, long-winded analysis and words of recommendation presented proudly. Check it out!

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Liftoach Pandemonium fires off with some swirling-yet-clanging dissonance that simply never lets up. The guitar feels organic, worming outside the containment of mere motifs with a squirmy doggedness. It oozes anti-rigidity. Meanwhile, the percussion pounds. The vocals are markedly intense, riding the line between harsh and decipherable in a manner that forces you to pay attention. Sonically, the song is truly overwhelming, and I find it difficult to absorb everything at once. As such, Liftoach Pandemonium is built for relistening. As long as you intentionally direct your focus, each listen features a new lead player. Every inclusion is a treat for the senses. I particularly enjoy the injection of ding-donging bells into the swirling tumult of extremity. Much like encountering sirens in a song whilst driving, these sounds are unsettling and edge-setting. Even after multiple listens, I still find these subtle bells to be anxiety inducing. Who is here? I wonder. Leave me alone. I'm listening to Wince and Frisson. Trying to...relax? 

​This is masterful cacophony. In the world of extreme metal, where listenability is all-too-oft a battle, intrigue stemming from confusion serves as a pretty damn good hook. I feel like I listened to this track at least 5 times before I could even begin to unravel it, but the process of relistening was born of willful interest, not frustration. That's an important distinction. I strive to understand. I don't understand. ​It's safe to say that I still find the execution somewhat confounding, and I mean this in the best of ways. Wince and Frisson's integral paradoxes are quite alluring. In any case, listening to Liftoach Pandemonium allows me to experience an entire album's worth of aggression and oddity in an impossibly brief span of time. So much noise has been crammed in, and yet the track feels sleek rather than overstuffed. As before, I'm a big fan of the execution of the stated mission to be "anti-filler.” Liftoach Pandemonium is even leaner and meaner than KÄRRHÄXAN​, somehow hitting a remarkably concise 2:34. It astounds me that Wince and Frisson are able to cram so much into such a trim runtime. The sheer extremity of the track somehow melts localized time as soon as one hits play. 

And the video! I love how Wince and Frisson have established their creative and aesthetic vision so concretely. So much so, in fact, that I'm wondering what a track without a video would even feel like. Not to impose pressure, of course--drawing and animating these frames, let alone conceptualizing the narrative and storyboard in the first place, must amount to an extraordinary amount of work. Liftoach Pandemonium's fantastic and eerie video matches the limited color palette of KÄRRHÄXAN​, and the story--which involves the disentombment and arcane reanimation of a demon--reflects the same religious currents. Here, the critique of deification is clear. I mean, take a gander at the thumbnail.

Says  Triumvir Kaleido, (songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, bassist, and animator): "This video was exhausting to make. The state of the world right now is breaking my heart. Everyday is a twisted game of stress management, a game of 'I cannot look, but I must know.' It has become unbearable. A few scenes in the video were based off recent nightmares I've had. I'm glad my work creating the artwork for it is finished. I hope this bizarre video has some sort of positive effect. And I hope we can make it through this period of time, and look back as survivors on the right side of history. My heartbreaks for those suffering the brunt of this madness, and for those lost because of it. I love people, and cannot bear to see them suffer any longer."

I strongly suspect that this track and video will illicit in you, dear reader, responses of both wince and frisson. And any art that can do that is inherently pretty fuckin' sick, in my humble opinion. My excitement for the album is magnified.

Wince and Frisson - "Liftoach Pandemonium" will be released released March 27th, 2026. Pre-order here!

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Wince and Frisson can be found​ at their linktree
Art by Triumvir