Not bad at all.? I don't know much about this Canadian act but their brand of dirty and rocked out hardcore/punk makes its business known right up front with this one, so expect generally short songs of around two minutes each with sickly textured screaming vocals over thick ?n' grimy rhythms that perfectly combine the heaviness and fury of hardcore/punk with a rock ?n' roll strut.? At times there's a little bit of an Entombed ("Wolverine Blues") thing going on with the churning grit of the chord progressions, but the vocals aren't in that vein at all (I hate to compare them to other bands but the vocals do sound eerily similar to Darkest Hour), and the songwriting is more of a creatively strange concoction that's got its darker and more dissonant edges (check out the awesome "Gregario", complete with some guest vocals from Damnation A.D./When Tigers Fight frontman Mike McTernan) as well as its more rocked out elements - such as the fiery leads throughout or, more specifically, the rampaging pull-off runs and overall feel of "President Gas".? In addition to McTernan's vocal contribution, Converge's Nate Newton adds some brutal vocal work to a few of the other songs, while his bandmate and producer Kurt Ballou takes the guitar solo on "White Jesus".? Portions of "Headhunter" are much more metallic and add a thrashier kick to its speedy tempos at the start, "Pledonexia" is another slower and darker tune with some pounding rhythms and a good balance of sludgy rock and very subtly melodic lead playing, and "Fifth Hour Zeros" is somehow catchier and more memorable in its use of discordance within a straightforward structure - one of the best songs herein, without a doubt. Having been recorded by Kurt Ballou of course the fucker sounds great. As usual his knack for getting a really warm and natural sound pays off in full, so the drums have a crisp snap, the guitars and vocals are fighting for the lead role with equal amounts of textured character, and the bass pumps away just in the background. I have no complaints. On occasion the mix will shift to give the bass more of a lead role too (see "Kingsnake, Crawlin'"), so it's cool that there are some little nuances going on amidst the general consistency. And the design is fucking beautiful on this thing. The outer packing is printed in metallic bronze ink on textured matte black paper, while the booklet is then printed in black on matte white stock and is sort of set up like a hymnal. All of the imagery contrasts heaven/hell types of content and looks fucking slick as shit in its simplicity and elegance. Sign me up. The lyrics can be somewhat sarcastic at times but are pretty scathing in their attacks: "Grease up the babies, they're on national television this evening. My lord, please forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Fucking bunch of sufficients considering they only need to be confident for being credible. Well from here, you look fuckin' ridiculous..." I'm into this. There's a definite sense of something big to be expected from this band. This is already a damn good record, but it's the general aesthetic of the packaging and lyrics that suggest that there's something more to come. The music is awesome, but I don't feel like it's quite as innovative or expressive as it's probably going to get, so I'd suggest keeping an eye on this band for sure. Nicely done.
[Cyclop]
Running time - 28:00 (approximately), Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: Gregario, Chachacha D'Amore, Pledonexia, Fifth Hour Zeros]
Cyclop Media - http://www.cyclop-online.com
