Volunteer - Goner ep

Label: Triple Eye Industries
Year: 2014

Four songs (one is a cover) that go rumbling past akin to a runaway freight train. The ep opens on an Unsane kind of note, lots of distortion on the bass guitar, and a very tight and punchy volley of riffs that could have easily been on whatever Chris Spencer's next project might be (sans slide guitar). The second song eases into a sludgier groove that has that JJ Paradise Players Club stink on it. It's got a laid back heaviness, but nothing "stoner" about it. Know what I mean? The title track comes along with more swinging speed and a penchant for some vaguely Deadguy via Helmet post hardcore bombast. Not unlike a saber tooth tiger emerging from the Labrea Tarpits...covered in primordial ooze, but those fangs are still as dangerous as ever. The final effort on this record is a cover of the Jawbreaker song 'I Love You So Much It's Killing Us Both', which, as a person with a longstanding dislike of all things Jawbreaker, I can't really comment on Volunteer's ability to stay true to the spirit of the original or anything. I know Jawbreaker never sounded like they were mainlining Codeine and delivering the song from two rooms away under a blanket of summer humidity, but that seems to be Volunteer's take on it.
The band has a former member of Forstella Ford, which should get you pretty good trivia points at your next 1998 basement hardcore show. If you have the propensity for time travel that is.
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DL