With a sludge ridden beefy crunch that recalls the best of the 90's stoner rock scene as well as 80's hardcore, Unsane have managed to keep the fires burning through many years of turmoil, scattered bouts of inactivity, and line-up changes. Visqueen see the New York trio of Chris Spencer (guitar/vocals), Dave Curran (bass/vocals), and Vincent Signorelli (drums) back, and heavier than ever, this time on Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings. These guys have a slew of releases under their belt, including their popular ones Total Destruction, Blood Run, and Occupational Hazzard, but fans will be happy with the crushing sounds that will blast through your speakers when playing Visqueen. The ringing chords, bombastic riffs, and pounding drum work of "Only Pain" is a perfect example of the power contained in these grooves. The aggression in songs like "No One", "Windshield", and "Shooting Clay" contains elements of stoner/doom, as well as metallic post rock, bringing to mind bands such as Clutch, Black Label Society, The Hidden Hand, early Mastodon, and ISIS. Vocally, Unsane are less extreme than many of the bands on the scene, as they opt for a hardcore type scream that is fairly easy to understand. That aspect, coupled with the abundance of crunchy and memorable riffs, should make this fairly appealing to listeners of punk/metal/hardcore hybrids. The problem is there's nothing here truly groundbreaking, and some of the songs tend to sound too similar to each other. For my money, I'd like to hear them do more of the epic instrumental doom/post rock heard on the closer "East Broadway", a real doozy of fuzz-soaked bass and guitar dirges, sound effects, and slamming drum bashes. Now that would be really interesting...
Track Listing
1. Against The Grain
2. Last Man Standing
3. This Stops At The River
4. Only Pain
5. No One
6. Windshield
7. Shooting Clay
8. Line On The Wall
9. Disdain
10. Eat Crow
11. East Broadway
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