This debut LP from Death Pose is a funny one. It’s ostensibly a gnarly noise-rock record, but frequently seems to crib from post-hardcore acts like Helmet, Quicksand, Orange 9mm and, in the bleary melodies, Shift. There’s a strained awkwardness to it all that makes it seem like the band are really pushing their limits to make everything work, and, to be honest with you, things very nearly don’t. In a weird way it’s this tension that makes ‘Midnight Society’ compelling: everything is stretched to breaking and something disastrous could happen at almost any point. That it doesn’t feels down to fate rather than exactitude, and I do honestly wonder whether I would have listened to the album even half as much if things’d been pulled off with careless nonchalance.