Young Ruins Severance Play cassette
Cataclysmic darkwave/post-punk/hardcore sound from Brooklyn’s YOUNG RUINS. The opener “Rabbits” has a tremulous guitar riff like JOY DIVISION’s “New Dawn Fades,” which simply repeats “I could be the god / You could be the lamb / Take you by throat.” Even in our news-cycle culture that has forgotten last month, let alone last year’s news, this recording from 2016, finally released in 2021, is still very current. “Actual Women” and “Law Enforcement” speak for themselves, while “On Hold” encapsulates YOUNG RUINS stream of conscience theme. Songs wonder lyrically, brooding on the mundane, mixed with social conflict, as in “So alive culturally, little house on the BQE / We all still lock our doors at night / Expensive, local, everything” from the closer “Game Over.” The instrumentation is jabby and loud, but with earned breaks from chaos; and mostly the songs move in a single direction: rising crescendo to end right there at the top, ignoring typical verse/chorus patterns. I would highly recommend this cassette.