Light Screamer : " Reap"

You say noise rock or post punk and you are not expecting anything like what these Swedes are busting out. Even I am surprised . The first song is  is much more melodic than I thought it would be going into this. The second song, is more angular and awkward, resulting in melodies that are not as pleasing to me. The guitar tone is the main thing that is post punk here. It harkens back to the 80s. "Stop" is both dark and tense. I guess I can hear some Jesus Lizard influence. I also hear touches of grunge. I like how driving the bass is. They almsot get heavy in a metal sense. While they come up with some cool ideas , they are not the most consistent songwriters. Their track record is every other song is cool, with the odd songs being awkward. This streak is broken on "Dawn' which is dark, but the melodies do not stack up along side of the best songs on this album, where they do work.

They get back on track with "Higher" .  The vocals do not play as big of a role. It is here where I realize they remind me of a death rock Sonic Youth. They indulge this spooky side with a bit of punk on "Sky". The vocals are more punk than not , but still sung. Just limited in what they can do. They are androgynous. I am pretty sure it's a woman singing with a kind of Courtney Love thing going on. It could be a young man with a higher voice, but reaonably sure it's a woman. In 2020 you can never be too sure about these things.  The fact is shown yet again on "Fear" where the guitars compensate. The songs are very compactly written , never going very far over the five minute mark. For punk that would be a long song.

The bass gets creepy on "Ground". The vocals get a little meaner . Never really screaming or gowling. Empassioned shout from time to time. The guitar is the strong point of this album. It summons a Bauhaus like state of sonics here.  Lyrically it is pretty simple with the metaphor. But English is their second language. "Walk" is not a Pantera cover. Instead it reaffirms te darkness that colors the album. I will give this album an 8. Great guitar, the vocals I was not as into , but some strong moments over all.