Band To Watch: PISS

CONTENT WARNING: Sexual violence, sexual assault, and discussions of trauma.When is art successful? That’s obviously meant to be a ridiculous rhetorical question. But Vancouver quartet PISS — vocalist/lyricist Taylor Zantingh, guitarist Tyler Patterson, bassist Gavin Moya, and drummer Garreth Roberts — and their debut album you made me / skin on linen, have got me thinking some big, ridiculous things. Why do a gnarled scream and grating guitars sound so good? Why do we turn pain into sound? Why do we feel pain? Why do we inflict pain? What do I get from seeing someone else’s pain? These are only a very minute fraction of the difficult questions that PISS’ music brings to mind. you made me / skin on linen stopped me in my tracks. It’s an assemblage of guttural yells, engrossing poetry, samples of feminist thinkers and activists, grueling bass, unyielding drums, and landmine guitars. In just over 30 minutes, the album articulates the evolution of personhood in a world that seems to welcome sexual violence, the societal norms that have allowed such violence to continue throughout history, and the oppositional viewpoints on how to move forward and prevent that injustice from continuing...