Kylesa's guitarist, Laura Pleasants, decided to pursue a more compact approach in her songwriting, transitioning from heavily distorted psychedelic guitars to a "skeletal" sound, seen in her post-punk solo project titled The Discussion.
In the world of music, change is often the only constant. This is certainly true for Laura Pleasants, a name synonymous with the metal quartet Kylesa, which she co-founded in Savannah, Georgia in the early '00s. However, Pleasants has ventured into new territory with her current solo project, The Discussion.
Pleasants' debut album with The Discussion, titled All the Pretty Flowers, is out now via Artoffact. The album, set in a "hollow house" and thematically concerned with "emptiness", is a departure from her past work. While Pleasants' guitar style has been influenced by Siouxsie and the Banshees/Magazine guitarist John McGeoch and minimal wave music, the sound on All the Pretty Flowers is markedly different.
Initially, the album was set to feature a lot more guitar. However, Pleasants worked with producer Jason Corbett to hone her vision and restrain the guitar presence. The result is an album driven more by a brawny post-punk bass rhythm than leanly-picked guitar spectrality.
One standout track on the album is In Death & Life. Originally demoed with EarthQuaker Devices' Life Pedal V3 boost/distortion pedal, the final version retains a wiry, string-stretching solo that Pleasants wanted to sound "triumphant but not cheesy".
Another notable track is Blue Light, a synth-oscillating piece where Pleasants harnesses a more textural, string-scraping style.
In a surprising shift, Pleasants moved from a swampy drop-G aesthetic to a more harmonically approachable standard tuning in her new project. This change, coupled with the reduced guitar presence, has given All the Pretty Flowers a unique sound that sets it apart from Pleasants' previous work.
As for Kylesa, the return of the band has given fans plenty to talk about. However, it's unclear if the reunion will yield any new metal music. Pleasants has stated that she will spend 2025 playing Kylesa shows for the first time since 2015.
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This article first appeared on our website. All the Pretty Flowers is available now.
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