There was a period in my life, towards the end of my teenage years, when I was completely obsessed with coldwave. It only took me the first few seconds of the album Escalator to the Abattoir to claim it as reviewer. This will probably be my most subjective review, because I simply cannot resist the charms of this kind of music.
I am going to start with something interesting, which is that I noticed Plague Pits added the synthwave tag to the album. With what I am about to say, I am in a way digging my own grave, since there are people who consider what I did on the album Unknown Signals to be synthwave, something I have never been entirely convinced of myself. In reality, Plague Pits sounds much more synthwave to me than my own work, and much more than almost everything that carries that label today, which for years has been used generically to tag anything somehow inspired by the culture and sound of the 80s. What Plague Pits does is different. They sound like the real 80s. They sound like the electronic underground of that era and follow the tradition of coldwave, minimal synth, darkwave and post punk. Taking this into account, I think they are much more deserving of the "synthwave" label, which seems to fit them better for historical reasons.
The album is an impeccable and surgical work of synthesizers and effects. All the synthesizers, drum machines and vocal effects seem to be the ones used by coldwave artists producing music in the 80s. I do not perceive anything that would make me believe this album was produced between 2024 and 2025, except for the recording quality. I have listened to a huge amount of music from that era which, although it had intentions similar to those of Plague Pits, simply could not sound this clean because of the limitations of the technology available at the time. They were usually limited to recording on tape, using a Tascam Portastudio at best. I think the sound of this album would have been the dream of many projects from that era.
From a sonic point of view, they achieve a great rhythmic sensuality with an instrumentation that, on first listen, might sound "cold". Songs like More Than Devotion make me feel like I am walking through some European city in the 80s, wearing a black overcoat, big black boots and hair full of hairspray, about to enter some dark club. Still, I do not want to put one track above another, because I think the entire album is incredible. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It has no weak points. It possibly has the most festive aura that coldwave can have, reminiscent of projects like Martin Dupont or Kas Product.
In conclusion, Escalator to the Abattoir is a fantastic album. I think it is a great starting point for exploring coldwave, because it does not have the melancholic and sad component that other projects do, which can take you further down. 100% recommended.