Reviews

The American Northeast has a need every ten years or so for a band to come along and fill a musical black hole of anti-matter that can only be reached through feedback and blasphemy. Overcast (R.I.P.) filled that void competently in the 1990s for a spell before disintegrating, but now there is a hole once more. The re-located Today is the Day cannot truly be called a "New England" band but their vibrations are appreciated nonetheless.

Enter Trap Them, comprised of ex-members of (occ)cult bands December Wolves and Transistor Transistor, to occupy that negative space that is needed like sweet heroin for the many fans of heavy music in the NE and beyond. This is a swift follow-up to last year's and highly-regarded Sleepwell Deconstructor and this new release is worthy of praise and worship too.

Ably recorded by sound demi-god Kurt Ballou (if you don't know him you're at the wrong website) this 15 minute or so RAGER is the sound of New England. Fact: the oh-so-quaint American Northeast is not about foliage and pleasant Revolutionary War re-enactments, but is about trucks sliding on the Mass Pike in January and the sleet and ice on the ground getting sprayed with blood and then doused in gasoline. This record is a swift upper-cut and a lit cigarette thrown into the back of your head while you wander doubled-over into traffic. Séance Prime is cryptic, visceral, and brief, which I'm sure was the intention. Fuck all other hardcore bands; Trap Them is Eyehategod for the Massholes. God knows they are needed and necessary...