Unsane: " Sterilize"

Well it's about time these guys came back to claim their place in today's music after influencing tons of pretenders to the throne. There is more of a metal feel to the opener of this one. It's mature and well written, but doesn't have the punk energy that was an underlying motivator of their sound. But the saying goes that when punk learn how to play their instruments it turns into metal. "The Grind" is more frantic ranting that is not as clear in it's thought process as the opener. They balance out the snarl of what they do with song writing on the punchy "Aberration". Though thanks to the drive of the muscular bass playing which holds most of these songs together it's almost hit or miss in terms of songwriting , with every other other song connecting to me. I think aside from the spit fire energy of youth, they are fairly consistent to who they were back in the 90s.

Some of the stronger songs like "Lung' work when the angular groove still retains a bit of swing to it and grabs you in it's steamroller path. It also has the guitar providing more of a darker underbelly to their sound that I had not notice from their early work.  Sometimes the songs try to hold on top of what was established on the previous song and the vocals operating off more of a shout lose the personality the song might have had.  The vocals are run through a distorted filter to give them the feeling they are being shouted with more angst than they might have been in the booth. They hit their stride on "Distance" which both the momentum and the melody that I want from these guys. "A Slow Reaction" feels like they are meeting at a cross roads somewhere between Black Flag and Hotwatermusic. This is a decent enough place for them.

They bring the thicker sludge like rumble to "We're Fucked", which is the exact things their fans are going to want to hear from them.The bass driven brooding to the groove of "Avail" is not what I expected from them but it's really well done and hard to argue against. I will give this album an 8, I would say I would see how it sits with me, but I don't foresee myself getting a ton of mileage out of it as this genre of music is not really my thing. I think fans of these guys will be pleased by their return and I am glad they are back if nothing else to put some bands in perspective for what they are.