The album opens with impressive grit. I have heard this band's name around in the underground circles, but the first time I checked them out. My first thoughts are this is like a cross between the Plasmatics and GISM. The first song has a more metallic aggression, mixed with the drive of rock attitude. Only the last song hit the three-minute mark with most of the album coming in under the two-minute mark. "Fortified" is more aggression than there is songwriting so it becomes a blur of anger, rather than a song I want to listen to repeatedly. The expressive nature of punk is still intact on "Attainable" , but the drummer dials in a bit of nuance, along with more sonic layers being applied to keep things interesting.
Samantha Kaiser's coarse snarl does color the songs with a singular shade of red. This forces the guitars to carry more of weight which they do on "Out of Mind". The drummer is pretty spectacular, which punk band's need, but they really deliver here. "Dicey" is the first song since the opener that delivers in a perfect fashion. The guitars slowing down and the sampled narration might be an interlude, but it shows another sonic side of the band. Which is good as they are back to the old tricks on "the Way Out". "Worn Down" almost feels like a an extension of the previous song, which shows the uniformity of singular-minded aggression.
"Snake Skin" works for what it is, and pretty much captures what you want from this kind of punk, without being too much like the other songs here. It packs a great deal of punch into it's minute and a half. The over three minute album closer "Composure" is a more effective use of the rage injected into these songs as it stomps harder. I will give this album a 9, as the overall effect works for what they are doing. Normally I am not into really straightforward punk like this, but they manage to win me over with the apocalyptic feel of their songs.
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