Reviews

Vicious Circle

Bleakness Blurred Visions LP

Gothic death-punk with a tinge of orgcore coming to you straight from ol’ Paris, as if PAINT IT BLACK collaborated with the DISPOSSESSED to bring you a melodic hardcore version of the CURE. Fantastic production; the natural distortion on the guitar is absolutely classic and clean, while the bass is punchy and crisp. For a trio, these folks pack a huge punch. It doesn’t sound like they did a lot of overdubbing either, so I’d have to assume this is a pretty faithful recreation of how they sound live. Everything feels huge and soaring—vocals, guitars, and hell, even the drums. Really solid slab and well worth checking out.

Muscle Romantic Living cassette

Birthing a strange breed of avant-garde hardcore, MUSCLE is an innovative trio out of Baltimore. Their simultaneously sleek and meaty racket originates solely from a drummer, bassist, and vocalist who conspire to create a strikingly cohesive sound. This physical-release-only live tape lets you hear it in all of its raw glory across thirteen songs. Due in part to the sparse instrumentation, their style is hard to pin down, and when they refer to themselves as “the ABBA of no wave,” the description seems surprisingly plausible. It’s artistic passion pinned to embryonic grooves as if guitars were obsolete.