Heads : "Collider"

In the wake of the short lived post-punk revival we are beginning to get bands who might have been inspired by bands like Joy Division, but go deeper and pull out thoughtfully bleak work of their own. This is one of those bands. I like the fact it reminds me of  Swans, as its post-"Greed" Swans where most bands are stuck on that era. They do have their own personality and are not as pounding or sonic as Swans. There  are some angular guitar moments, but it comes from more of a rock n roll place. The vocals go into a slightly higher shoe gaze coo on "Urges". They go into a more speculative grunged out indie rock drone on "Last Gasp Shout". This has some excellent guitar textures that are powerfully melodic. The post-punk pound of "Mannequin" creates mood and sets the stage for the chanted vocal to float over as they maintain the tension thanks to the pummeling bass line.

The bass stays beefy against the more sonic swaggering rippling over "Smile". There are some harder rock accents, but I would not say the intent is to be heavy. "Wolves At the Door" has more of an ebb and flow. The baritone spoken vocals are a nice touch, giving a Swans feel. Dynamically intense in the manner it hits you with a gradual build. More motion flows through "Samsa". The vocals have a subtle sneer to them, but continue to smoothly glide over the drone. There is a more industrial pound to the feed back fringed "To Call and Let it Ring". When the low monotone narrative comes in this is reined back with metallic shards thrown in as accents.  It has an oppressive and depressive mood to it when the vocals come back singing. The title track is more like a minimalist spoken word interlude that only had acoustic guitar come in at the end.

This album has been pretty dynamic in terms of the journey it takes you on so the tension is maintained on "Youth" that closes things. I like lyrics to this one. It's more rock n roll in it's jangle than most of the other songs , but fits well into the whole of what this band does. They set  sax against the heavier pound it swell into. I'll give this album a 9.5, it' impressive at vocals sometimes go into a Morphine like croon that can become a little uniform, but over all this is a great narcotic listen that is beautifully bleak,