Labels: Electric Human Project
Review by: Alex Deller
Mercy me, this is fucking chaos. Usurp Synapse’s aren’t so much songs as a series of uncontrolled explosions which somehow made their way onto vinyl. Scream then scream then scream some more, roll yourself around the floor. Instrumentation is effectively used as a weapon, waging war on eardrums worldwide with sharp, straggly guitars and convoluted keyboard parps that sound like someone having an epileptic fit on one of those oversized pianos they had in the movie ‘Big’. Brief stop, then start, play so fast your veins are just about to burst and there’s blood in your spit, kinda like Honeywell on a new wave kick. Or something.
Hassan I Sabbah hit me with a suckerpunch, pulling that crafty trick whereby you pick up a split for one band only to have the unknown quantity hand you your ass in a sling. They play yet more emotional fucking violence to tear your own heart out to, offering a similar dose of broken-lung screams and jarring music as their pals Usurp Synapse, but rather than just relying on the screams and shouts and the bleeding hands they add in some quieter, more reflective parts, getting all remorseful and melancholic a la September or Moss Icon for “Yella’s Son, Cold Mourning” and offering more old-school emo goodness elsewhere with nearly-melodic guitars duking it out with the ever more fraught and anxious screams. Totally top-notch – buy it now or cry even more later!