Labels: Viper Bite
Review by: Alex Deller
Hmm, not entirely sure what this lot are up to and sometimes I don’t think they are either. The bricks n’ mortar are some sort of post-hardcore-gone-grunge collision that take in the chunky riffs Handsome or Quicksand whilst dolloping in some disjointed Drive Like Jehu moments for good measure. Singer Josh McDowell is enjoyably all over the place, his hyperactive yelp somewhere between the Rye Coalition and a Ritalin-dosed Racebannon and capable of maintaining momentum even when the quality of the riffs dips a little. Things unfortunately go slightly awry towards the end with ‘Dry Bones’, a strange and rather beastly hybrid that starts with a series of lazy, hazy, J. Mascis affectations before lolloping off into wrongfooted Modest Mouse territory. Work it does not, and things don’t quite recover from there on out “” a bit of a shame for a band with plenty of energy and solid enough chops, so let’s hope that sometime soon they figure out exactly which of several different directions they really want to be pulling in.