Pregnant Whale Pain
Pregnant Whale Pain

From Hungary comes a rather bizarre musical proposition (starting with the... picturesque name) but certainly worthy of attention.

The Pregnant Whale Pain are a musical group from Budapest that released their self-titled debut album in 2015; a work that aroused much curiosity in the alternative metal scene and led these very young musicians to tour the stages of their country, led by at the time the eighteen-year-old singer and main composer of the band, Krisz Horváth.

The band is characterized by a changing and versatile sound, yet certainly rooted in a deep love for the alternative rock/metal sounds of the '90s; an impression confirmed by Krisz himself, who indeed cites among the albums he would take to a desert island works like "California" by Mr Bungle and "Above" by Mad Season.

The writing of the pieces is therefore influenced by these stylistic coordinates: throughout the album (starting with "Mythical Creature") we find dark vocal harmonies that clearly reference Alice in Chains; the track "Whitdrawal, Surgery & Recovery" brings to life a hallucinated collage of strange synthesizers, raw guitar riffs, tongue clicks, and guttural sounds, much loved by the previously mentioned Mr Bungle, while "Days of Hard Work & Pleasure", with its skewed swing, winks at Faith No More of "Angel Dust"; then the Nirvana peek in with the distorted guitars and hoarse singing of "Confessions & Birthday Party", the Deftones in "Relapse", the Soundgarden in "Paperplanes"… in short, to a keen and experienced listener, it is possible to notice the many, small references with which our distressed pregnant whales pay homage to the music of the '90s decade.

However, the band's influences are not limited to what would otherwise become a mere post-grunge emulation of the stars from Seattle and surroundings: the guys try to incorporate in their songwriting elements of traditional music from their country, a crossroads throughout history of numerous both western and eastern cultures, and instruments not exactly conventional for the harder genres, like trumpets and percussion ("Falling Down"); furthermore, the shadows of Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried and Me, and Meshuggah shape the band's sound towards more aggressive and modern territories between djent brackets, dissonant guitars, and the intense scream vocals of the aforementioned Krisz.

The great revelation and driving force of the project are precisely the vocal abilities of the young Hungarian screamer: Krisz takes on multiple vocal styles with Cornell-like highs, the vocal agility of the histrionic Patton, and the anguished interpretation typical of the Staley/Cantrell duo, showcasing his influences perhaps immaturely but with pride and apparent admiration for this musical scene that has so much offered to rock and alternative music in general.

In the end, the youthful Hungarian group presents itself with a debut that is quite derivative in terms of sounds and compositions, but rich in youthful enthusiasm and nuances in translating the '90s sounds into a more modern and sonically extreme context. It will be with the release of the EP "Blank" in 2017 that the Pregnant Whale Pain will instead begin to steer towards a path of personal growth oriented towards greater experimentation, before the release (now imminent) of a true second album.