It’s been half a decade since 2007s ‘Visqueen’, a punishing document of sonic brutality in Unsane’s lengthy career of producing documents of sonic brutality. In many ways, the appropriately-titled ‘Wreck’ represents business as usual for the eternally pissed-off power trio. don’t think for a second that they’ve mellowed any. The production may be a little crisper than on some of the previous releases – I’m thinking of ‘Scattered Smothered and Covered’, to which ‘Wreck’ is an obvious counterpart – but it’s as full-tilt and relentlessly grey as the best of them.
Whereas many bands who would be fittingly described as ‘brutal’ and ‘relentless’ are given to extreme speed or screaming vocals, Unsane’s sound is terrifying because it’s so direct. The album covers aside – and ‘Wreck’ is no exception here – they don’t trade in shock tactics, and aren’t all about the pace either, and instead they contrive to create the aural equivalent of a cudgel to the cranium and bludgeon away without mercy. To complain about the lack of variety is to completely miss the point – although it’s not about points where the use of blunt instruments is concerned.
Chris Spencer’s shouted vocals are, as ever, fuzzed with distortion and low in the mix, half-submerged beneath a speaker-tearing distorted bass, never more powerfully exemplified than on the squirming, churning ‘Metropolis’. The guitars aren’t all about total distortion, but heavy grain, resulting in a different kind of abrasion – one that scours the brain cavity. And once they’re out of the traps, they just keep on going, each song a sonic wrecking ball.
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‘Stuck’ pulls out the biggest surprise of the album when it eases off the gas and goes almost mainstream rock and radio-friendly but then the chorus explodes into overload, sending every needle into the red and delivering everything you’ll never hear from the Foo Fighters. Lemme tell you once and for all, the Foo Fighters don’t rock. Unsane, on the other hand... they’re total fucking granite, every song a slab of basalt. ‘Wreck’ is guaranteed to leave you feeling dazed, battered and bruised, and it would be disappointing if it didn’t.
Unsane Online
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