Labels: Daymare – Southern Lord
Review by: Alex Deller
Baptists are pushing ten years of music-making, and I’ve got to say that this is the first time they’ve fully engaged me. The lion’s share of this record is exactly what I recall – lean, well-developed, everything-in-the-mix metallic hardcore from the Trap Them school of thought – but there’s also some substantial fraying at the edges, and it’s here that things get interesting. Amid the powerful, brutish lunges are elements of jagged noise-rock, nods to Botch’s weirder moments and drawn-out passages that allow Nick Yacyshyn’s drumming room to really manoeuvre. Given that Yacyshyn also plays in Sumac you have to wonder whether these spacial explorations are a natural evolution for Baptists or the result of his moonlighting, but whatever the answer it’s a truly excellent development for the band – just check out tracks like ‘Eulogy Template’ or ‘Carbide’ for proof of a sound that’s both thought-provoking and skull-smashing.