Stand Before The Firing Squad

Stand Before The Firing Squad

Noise Machine

[4/5] There are two extended moments of near calm on Stand Before The Firing Squad’s debut album, Noise Machine, but based on sequencing, they should probably be regarded as the calm before the storm (opener “Light ’Em Up And Knock ’Em Back (We’re SBTFS)”) and the eye of the hurricane (“Eloi, Eloi”). Everything else on Noise Machine captures SBTFS gnashing away on spastic instrumental synapse-snappers and demonstrating a post-everything bloodlust for anything resembling accepted notions of songcraft. Theirs is a rare mix of animated avant-grind that’s colored as much by crazed pop-culture references as it is the blood of their gutted contemporaries. “The Bad Heart Ruse,” for instance, begins as a schizophrenic tongue-lashing that climaxes in a groove-driven cathartic purge. The inmates have overrun the asylum, all right. And, though their playlist can be a little inconsistent, it sure is thrilling. (HAND OF HOPE; handofhoperecords.net) Tristan Staddon

Categories: