Survival Knife in-store performance May 17 @ 3 p.m.! Loose Power out April 19 on cd & lp.
When Justin Trosper and Brandt Sandeno began work on what
would become their incredibly influential band Unwound, they were young punks making noise in basements in Olympia
at the cusp of the grunge age of the early '90s.
Their legacy of feedback,
ennui, and all-ages shows would inspire fervor and joy for the band's entire
lifespan, and echoes of their angular basement punk would be heard in the
ripples of independent music for years following their disbandment. Though
Sandeno's involvement in Unwound came just at the beginning and end of the
band, he and Trosper stayed friends and collaborators on different projects
throughout, and Survival Knife see the two founding members of Unwound
continuing to the next phase of creative work together. Now a good decade after
the last Unwound studio album, Survival Knife don't aim to recapture the urgent
squall of those mid-'90s days, but instead approach debut album
Loose Power with a compositional lens
more muscular and pushy than tormented or inward-looking. For one, Sandeno, who
began as Unwound's drummer, instead joins Trosper on second guitar, leaving the
rhythm section to Kris and Meg Cunningham.
There are some apparent subtleties
that amount more to being Trosper's signature sounds than aiming for the sounds
of the past. Still, the airy guitar blasts that make up the chorus to "Cut
the Quick" and the edgy dynamics that find the songs moving from muted,
mumbled lyrics into full-on howling all call back to Unwound's best moments.
The songs here, however, are harder, more direct, and less interested in dreamy
guitar breakdowns or youthful screaming. The grizzled howls and fantastical
dual-guitar intro of "Roman Fever" has more of a hard rock approach
than anything resembling '90s punk, and album closer "Heaven Has No Eyes"
stretches out in a sprawl of almost proggy proto-metal chunkiness and
time-signature shifts. The song, much like the album, only hints at its
creators' musical histories. Loose Power
sees some of the better minds in the heavier side of indie rock's legacy
branching out into grittier, gnarlier territory and turning in some inspired,
crushing tunes in the process. ~ Fred Thomas, Allmusic
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