Back in September of 2014, the internet nearly blew up when
people caught wind that The Story So Far
front man Parker Cannon had co-written and recorded a hardcore demo, calling
the project Snarl. With four songs
and under five minutes of collective play time, the demo fucking bumped,
leaving many listeners wishing for more.
However, many failed to realize, like myself, the fact that
only a few months after the initial demo Snarl
released a split with two other Michigan-based bands, skate punks Spitback, and Power Wrench, the brainchild of Citizen
front man Mat Kerekes. A fan of Citizen
since the debut of their LP "Youth," I couldn’t believe I never come across Power Wrench before stumbling across the
split, which dropped in January of 2015. The band is nothing short of fucking disgusting. The lead on “Set You Straight,” the first Power Wrench track on the split,
resembles old school shit you would expect to hear from bands like Primus or Sausage, with Kerekes’ vocals flawlessly layered on top to create
something truly special and unique.
Snarl on the other
hand is a whole different story. Where Power
Wrench brings an almost groovy vibe to the record, Snarl brings a fucking sledgehammer. All listeners need is one or
two play throughs of the track The Fuse
to realize Cannon’s true musical and vocal talents, with absolute destruction
and power lingering from the first chord to the last. The lyrics of the songs
on the split fit perfectly with Cannon’s writing style, illustrating the anger
and resentment underlying in most TSSF tracks, some of the main reasons I have
continued to fuck with the pop punk band since the early days of “Brevity” and
“680 South.”
Spitback picks up
right where Snarl leaves of, hitting
listeners in the face with their opener “Hammer,” arguably the illest track on
the split itself. Hailing from Michigan, I am lead to believe that the members
of the band have been buddies with Kerekes for some time, which is apparent by
their bouncy, leg-kicking leads and consistent in your face baseline. I truly
praise Spitback for their ability to
create an inimitable niche in a genre so overpopulated with bands trying to
profit off of a trending sound. You can tell just by listening to their tracks
that the band actually enjoys writing their songs, leading me to believe that
getting the opportunity to see Spitback
would be beyond rad.
If you missed this like I did, fucking download this shit
immediately. Every band hosts the split on their personal Bandcamp account, but
I will be placing Spitback’s at the
bottom as it is the only one with all of the lyrics posted to it. Even though
you don’t have to name a price, I urge you to at least throw these dudes a
dollar or two for their successful drop of something dope and original. With
almost every release in this realm sounding like cardboard cutouts of each
other, it is projects like this (and shit like Rust from Harm’s Way) that keep me believing there are still people out there just trying to spread the hate.
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