Album review: Mimi Barks – THIS IS DOOM TRAP

“I’m in love with the pain,” Mimi Barks told Kerrang! a full seven months ago, as she unveiled the bold roadmap to long-awaited first album THIS IS DOOM TRAP. “I’m in love with my broken heart.”

Little did we know the metamorphosis that infatuation with agony would bring about. Echoes of sadomasochistic punishment have always throbbed through Mimi’s music, calling back to her sweaty genesis in Berlin’s underground club scene. The steely edge of London’s warehouse district, her home for the past few years, cleaved off any lingering gristle from a rapidly-evolving sound. The 13 songs of TIDT are the culmination of a more profound journey, however, into the darkness of her deepest self to reconcile with – or at least take back control from – the demons swirling within.

Aficionados will already be acquainted with the devastating opening salvo. Lead single FSU (an abbreviation of ‘Fuck Shit Up’) is a thumping statement of destructive intent, overlaid with glassy melodies that hint at a newfound fragility. HOUSE FULL OF FAKES, meanwhile, showcased self-control, wrestling raw resentment and splatter movie samples into a startlingly sedate slice of slithering hip-hop that’s all the more effective for its subtlety. But then shit explodes.

MIRTAZAPINE (named after a powerful antidepressant) slams in on a raft of metallic guitars. The 102 seconds of PSYCHOSIS unfold with outrageously cracked swagger. WORMGIRL and MONTANA explore Mimi’s appetite for collaboration, with LA’s self-styled Queen Of The Damned Raven Gray adding impish energy to the former, while Ho99o9 supremo Yeti Bones crops up amidst a storm of fast-spat German language on the latter.

It’s THIS IS DOOM TRAP’s glimmering back-end that pushes the record over into greatness, though. Mimi’s music has always luxuriated in filth and fury, but SILENT TEARS, DISGUSTED and FINAL DESTINATION DEATH WITHOUT SATISFACTION polish that corrupted core to something resembling poppy accessibility, as dangerously seductive as a kiss from a Cenobite. And staggering closer INSOMNIAC dares tip over into climactic euphoria, rolling the credits perhaps not with resolution, but with something like acceptance.

Any glimmer of light on the horizon shouldn’t be mistaken for the sunrise, mind. It’s that of a new alt. superstar still just starting to explode.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Ho99o9, Nine Inch Nails, Scarlxrd

THIS IS DOOM TRAP is released on 27 September via Silent Cult