Systematik : "Bondage"

I ask punk bands to give me the same thing I ask from other forms of music...something that is dark,sardonic,depressing or contemplative in tone,as well as musical dynamic and textured. So you can guess where they tend to fall short in this regard.The singers snotty rasp laced temper tantrum is familiar all the way down to the sneered accents. The first riff that grabs me is on "Domination". The lyrics are not intelligible enough to decipher if there is a bdsm theme running though the lp or not.With the following song titled "Submission" you might suspect this as well. This is one pissed gimp, though he is more than likely a "little" who needs his diaper changed. "No Redemption" was the first song where I was able to make out what he was screaming about. On "Bondage" it's clear the guitarist is the one who is being tied down here. The drummer keeps fisting you with little lube and the same flogging of his snare. When they vary tempos and get away from the stiffly straight forward "one...two...three...go!" style on a song like "Another Nightmare" which starts off with a little more rock n roll swagger, it breaks things up. When this doesn't happen and they are just allowed to run primal across the dungeon it becomes a surprising vanilla brand of punk from a band that has all the kinky trappings.

When you have a song like "Masquerade" that is only one minute and one second in length, there is not much room to cover a lot of ground ...unless you are Nails and then you Nail it.The guitar player's solos bring the most to the table in terms of melody.The main riff of "Vagrant" almost has metal heft to it. I would really be disappointed if I saw them live and they were not in all leather and latex. This is a good lesson in not trusting what a band tags themselves with on their Bandcamp page. They hath appointed themselves death-rock, new-wave and indie rock. The only death rock moment might be the bass tone that opens the album from their it is right to the gutter punk.The fact that Sabotage Records released this also go my hopes up as they have released a very diverse brand of darker punk and post-punk. This is really the first rotten apple in the barrel, though they did put out some more female lead post-punk which I'm about over."Domination" really the only song you need to hear from these guys, then check one other and the rest of the album is more of the same. I'll give this one a 3, if you like hardcore punk rock that grates with the same angry burst again and again , then you can go ahead and round it up once you finish the glue you were sniffing.