Depressionista Tools for Survival cassette
Thought this was going to be another run-of-the-mill powerviolence release, but that changed as soon as the singer started rapping. Been a long time since I’ve heard a band bring back that old slamcore sound, and it’s got me curious—is this popular again? Tools for Survival seemed fresh at first, but sadly has diminishing returns. This is that East Coast “real tough guy” shit, and it sounded great during my first listen through, but each time I doubled back, I noticed how sloppy everything is together. The lead singer tries to cram as much as he can into each bar and it sounds rushed. It also contrasts with the often fluctuating tempo from the band and kills the flow. There were a couple lines that stuck out to me that I thought were clever, but one that made me laugh was from the track “East Side,” where the singer says “Pop punk is not punk / I’m not old, I’m not unc,” which, depending on who you ask, could very well be something an unc would say. DEPRESSIONISTA has a good base and I’m excited to see how they grow over the next few years. If my research is correct, they’ve only been doing the hip hop thing for over a year now, and I assume this is the first time the band has had to write music catering to that structure. But what do I know?