Reviews

Negative Days

Pests Call of the Void EP

Dark, mournful four-chord crust from Toronto. PESTS have a powerful presence, tightly wound and well-formed, if not entirely realized. Call of the Void channels fury with six driving tracks propelled by thick, sinewy guitars, thunderous drums, and haunting vocals. The raw production bolsters the edifice, drawing the listener into the distorted vortex. Sadly, the style surpasses the substance. Though everything sounds great on paper, the riffs lack the imaginative execution needed to make them truly memorable. Similarly, the vocals are cool and evil, but the monosyllabic delivery washes them out and waters them down. The track “On Your Own” stands out because it breaks up the tempo common to nearly every other song. I have a feeling that PESTS would be killer live. Nothing about this EP is shitty or even bad, it’s just missing the secret sauce that could’ve made it great.

Vestigio Vestigio LP

Full of rage and waging a sonic war against injustice, VESTIGIO uses punk as a vehicle to convey a sense of their experience as Latinos living in Canada. Gruff shouts punctuate the chainsaw buzz of wild guitars and tupa-tupa drums. The artwork portrays a scene of skeletons and razorwire that might lead one to chalk this up as a D-beat record, but this is a little different than your standard gasmask and bullet belt fare. VESTIGIO brings to mind APATIA NO and FALLAS DEL SISTIMA, passionate anarcho-punks committed to the struggle against oppression. A solid release from a band I’ll be keeping an eye out for.