Labels: Deathwish
Review by: MH
This is the latest 7inch from what was End Of A Year and is now called Self Defense Family. They recorded this in Iceland. These two songs are both longer than 6 minutes and slow to mid-paced. Patrick’s vocals have that familiar hoarseness and desperation. The title track takes side A. It’s a slow paced track with some nice guitar work and passionate vocals – very impressive. The second half of this song drifts into a jam-like ending which is quite hypnotic. That track is good but the track on the B side, “World Virgins”, blows it out of the water. It’s a downbeat slow-burner which builds and twists and turns and is one of the best songs I have heard from this band in its various forms. Whilst it is quite slow it teeters on the brink of explosion at times as the vocals and music get more passionate and frenzied. Towards the end there are spoken word vocals over a lone guitar. I guess it reminds me a little of Lungfish. If I am not mistaken, this is the song they were opening with on the UK tour at the start of this year and I have been looking forward to hearing a recorded version as it sounded so good live. This band continues to evolve and impress me with every release. I would love to hear a whole album of this type of stuff.