Fentanyl : "s/t"

 Imagine the jangle of punk executed by a grindcore band. This is the sonic attack of this band that features members of Spiritual Cramp, SPY, and World Peace. I imagine what happened here is they wanted to be able to cut loose like back when they were teenagers and freed from the expectation that comes when they have to play the actual songs of their other bands. The results are a mixed bag, as there is not a lot of songwriting that happens in under a minute. The second song "Blind" is better than the burst of an opening song. Though in hindsight the first song is better than the spastic "Ever Ending" which crosses the minute mark by five seconds giving them more time to tighten things. 

At over a minute and a half, there is plenty of time to develop "Further". The driving bass line makes up for a great deal and gives the song the backbone it needs. The bright clean guitar tones are not that heavy it makes things sound like sloppy chaos, but then again I listen to more music with pristine guitar tones.  "Avoidant" makes me think, that even though these guys are in bigger bands they must not be the principal songwriters for said bands."Hyper Focus" finds it starts to wear a little thin on me as the novelty of what they are trying to do, fails to accomplish the end goal of writing good songs no matter what kind of punk or hard-core you are trying to create. 

"Stress Starve' finds it becoming more of a rowdy clamor. I can hear where the raw bones of a song could be if this had been given the time to iron out. Detached" has a little more effort put into the songwriting. By the time I get to "Real Me" everything is beginning to sound the same. The vocals are delivered in an inarticulated brash scream, that is just as raw as the music being made. At almost two minutes "Spiral" is the most time they allot themselves to creating an actual song. They do much better as they ride a deliberate bass line and there is an ebb and flow of dynamics. They can write songs they are just choosing not to. 

"It Gazes Back" is another minute of chaos rushed, though the bass remains present to guide the way off this cliff. "Silver Hour" finds a uniform feeling spreading across the scope of their riffs. It speeds up into more of the crashing chords. I will give this album a 6.5, it has its moments, before you say I just don't get the joke, my expectations for the music of any genre are the same, write songs worth listening to again, and that will stand the test of time. This is just indulging a youthful feeling to expulse this energy. But maybe that is what you want from punk.Dropping September 13th on Convulse Records.

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