Cloak/Dagger

We Are

[4/5]

If you can overlook the hipsters who’ve embraced it, the artful, future-primitive roar pioneered by bands like Fucked Up has been the best thing that’s happened to hardcore, creatively speaking, since Revolution Summer. With We Are, Richmond, Virginia’s Cloak/Dagger join the party, puking out a debut that sounds like hardcore’s future even as it crackles like a VHS dub of The Decline Of Western Civilization. Vocalist Jason Mazzola barks anti-fashion screeds that are equally self-effacing and pointed, while his bandmates somehow manage to swing, rock and noodle inside fits that are so efficiently structured, they barely allow time to breathe. If there’s a star, though, it’s guitarist Collin Barth (ex-Trial By Fire): Despite recalling Black Flag (“Runways”) and Minor Threat (“Sunburnt Mess”), his riffs also use surf, R&B and noise, among a zillion other tricks, to turn hardcore on its tin ear. (JADE TREE) Aaron Burgess