I first heard ‘Forgiveness Is A Dove’ earlier this year during the Cape Town leg of Internet Girl’s Family Values Tour back in February and was immediately lulled in by its melodic opening before being pleasantly smacked in the face by the track taking flight.  When I saw that it had been released to streaming platforms, I was eager for another listen, which turned into about 50 (the track is just that good). The slow-burning firestarter, which is the third single from Cistamatic’s highly anticipated upcoming album Fear Is The Weapon, ebbs between tender refrains and quintessentially Punk brashness.

The track begins with a fuzzy yet gentle power chord-driven melody vaguely reminiscent of the ones that open Blur’s ‘Beetlebum’, but the direction it eventually goes couldn’t be further from Blur’s foppish Britpop sensibilities. For the first minute and a half of the track, over the opening melody, lead singer Gabbi le Roux delivers a verse filled with longing, scathing poetry in a hauntingly beautiful way. At a minute and a half in, the track hits its first crescendo with a swirling attack of guitars and frenetic drums.

‘Forgiveness Is A Dove‘ is a step into slightly uncharted sonic territory for the band with bassist Ethan Pelser commented that he sees it as their strongest composition yet and I would be hard pressed to disagree. The interplay between Ethan’s bass, Gabbi’s lead guitar and James Turner on drums shows an impressive synergy between the tight-knit power trio. The vocal range that Gabbi exhibits is something to behold, ranging from delicate to brutally cathartic. Their lyricism is simultaneously sharp and vulnerable, breaking down the concepts of forgiveness, being forgiven and the multi-faceted effects that come with putting one’s ego aside. Their impained delivery of “Oh this love! It cuts just like a knife. It burns! It boils my flesh! Until I’m what I’m scared of.” hits like a gut punch.

Besides the fact that the music is killer, I have been mesmerised by the engaging approach that Cistamatic have taken with the Fear Is The Weapon rollout by brings fans in for the full journey. They have done this in a multitude of ways, from the novel concept of Cistamatic club cards with the song ‘Cop Car‘, experiments with visual overconsumption on ‘Gutter‘, and leaking the full uncut version of the upcoming album on the official website (It’s really fucking cool go check it out) – https://fearistheweapon.xyz/