Labels: Atropine – Basement Apes Industries – Bigout – Odio Sonoro – Prototype – Solar Flare
Review by: Alex Deller
Was rather liking the sound Sofy Major had arrived at with that last 12″, but this sprawling double LP sees them in a different place altogether. The taut, noise-rock snarls still linger on, but while that three-tracker fell somewhere between Unsane and Shotmaker ‘Permission To Engage’ is thicker around the neck and shoulders, a burly, roaring thing that shares more with the likes of Keelhaul, Knut and KEN mode than anything remotely emo. While that’ll probably do wonders for their CV in the current climate, the change isn’t necessarily for the best if you favour good tunes over arbitrary labels as the gritty edges have been buffed away, the riffs have become somewhat standardised and the band’s sound doesn’t seem quite their own anymore. Don’t get me wrong, this certainly isn’t a bad release by any stretch – it packs its punches, gurns where it should and wibbles off into more contemplative realms to give you a rest from all the riffing in just the right places – but instead of setting up their stall in a field of one they’re now in a very crowded marketplace and don’t quite have the merchandise to compete with the three frontrunning acts already mentioned.