When your packaging resembles the inbreeding of the two best Witching Hour releases (that’d be Saetia’s Eronel and the Usurp 6″, silly) it’s not only nice that your tunes are great, but also a pleasant surprise when you actually manage to buck any preconceptions one might make from judging books by covers. Ahem. This Scares Me (who the observant among you may remember from the excellent Times Are Hard For Dreamers comp) manage all of this, storming through five songs in not much time at all and sounding like no one in particular while they do it. Via a series of muddy crashes and bangs, a barreling, chaotic hardcore band emerges, capable of simultaneously bludgeoning the listener and surprising them with snappy stops ‘n’ starts. Part of me is reminded of Coleman’s heavy-handed brutishness thanks to the dark, murky sound of the music and the ferociously hoarse female vocals, while the looseness of the songs smacks of bands like Palatka and all their slapdash glory. Lyrically we have a series of bleak little things wound tight with gauze and pinned securely in place, packed full of bloodsoaked, nocturnal imagery and an understandable mistrust of other humans, adding another toothsome layer to a record I desperately hope doesn’t fall through the cracks in a sea of mediocre releases…
