Milwaukee’s Expire are back with their sophomore LP ‘Pretty Low’ on Bridge Nine Records. Their debut LP ‘Pendulum Swings’ caused a big stir in the American hardcore punk scene and the band have become one of the giants of current hardcore punk.
The title track kicks off the album in style, a brutal opening of throat wrenching vocals combined with ferociously fast drums and a dark guitar tone, the song focuses on the theme of how low someone’s life can go.
‘Just Don’t’ starts in similar fashion, featuring a great low bass guitar tone and a superbly delivered chorus typical of passionate hardcore punk. ‘Fiction’ is dominated by a raucous riff and incredibly aggressive vocals, the song focuses on staying away from the perception of what beauty is within society, an interesting theme. ‘Gravity’ is another huge tempter to head bang, the bass line and fast instrumentals are brilliant and the vocals are noticeably ten times as aggressive as they were on the first album which just shows Expire’s progression.
‘Nobody’ focuses on despising those who only get to big places by knowing someone and not by working hard. The message is delivered with huge intent in this vigorous number, ‘Old Habits’ is probably my favourite track on this album - it reminds me a lot of their earlier work which shared the same incredibly fierce instrumentation. The end of this track features the guest vocals from the vocalist of hardcore band Bent Life, they blend in perfectly.
‘Forgetting’ focuses on the theme of losing memory of past problems, a little solo moment from the vocalist towards the end of the track reminds me a lot of their previous LP ‘Pendulum Swings’. ‘Callous’ continues the relentless energetic theme of the album. ‘Rejection’ has an incredibly fast drum pattern and again; deep, dark low bass lines creating a very interesting atmospheric sound.
Drawing towards the close of the album ‘If It Were Up To Me’ gives no sense of winding down, the track actually has a very meaningful theme - the song exerts anger based on the fact that one of the band member’s close friends was a victim of sexual abuse. ‘Second Face’ starts with gloomy opening reminiscent of the likes of Weekend Nachos or Xibalba, the track suddenly springs into life with another crazy chaotic vocal performance which takes centre stage even amongst the loud blaring guitars.
Additional vocals are used to good effect to close out a pounding, non-stop record which deserved it’s place in the US Billboard 200. I hope vocalist Josh Kelting had a good rest after recording this album, I’m sure he would have needed it.
