Losing Sleep “Jam Damage”

"Jam Damage" is the first release from Arkansas' Losing Sleep, and what a fuckin' great debut it is, offering eight short tracks in a mere 10 minutes. No song hits even two minutes in length, and the band's style is an unexpectedly unique fusion of surprisingly thick 'n' chunky metallic hardcore/punk with loads of dissonant post-hardcore textures, grinding bursts of speed, and aggressively snarled vocals. I'm honestly not sure how the hell these cats pull this off so damn well, either! It sort of sounds like there are a lot more influences at work than the end result would suggest on the surface, and typically it's pretty hard for a band to fuse all of these comparable yet differing styles into a whole that remains cohesive, but Losing Sleep does so with apparent ease. The material's heavier and more metallic than straightforward hardcore/punk, but it doesn't particularly come across as either metal or hardcore/punk. There's a definite undercurrent of a rocked out vibe in there, but they don't sound like one of those bands that blatantly bites off Motörhead at all. I mentioned the prevalence of those post-hardcore textures, but they sound nothing like a post-hardcore band. And despite some instances of pure grinding fury, they're absolutely not a grindcore band. Like I said, I have no idea how they throw all that shit in a blender and come out with a consistent niche of their own that actually makes sense, but they do... and it totally kicks ass! Excellent work.

Losing Sleep "Rat With Wings"

And bonus kick-ass points for the fact that this EP is available as a free download, too! Highly recommended and free, so... there's just no excuse not to give this one a shot:

[DOWNLOAD] Losing Sleep "Jam Damage" (@ Mediafire)