Already fairly established as a surprisingly legitimate hardcore outfit, Sacramento's Anguish Unsaid further assert their claim to maim on the creative sophomore full-length The Chronicles... Perhaps taking a cue from their sactown Utopian neighbors -- and maybe even socal spock rockers like The Locust -- Anguish accentuate their violent spasms with curt tensions and maddening progressions ("Thirst and Divert," "Stuart 2000," "Unscarred Downtime," etc.); not to mention cutting metallic grooves ("Shout at the Devil") and unsettling, bastardized metal riffs and insufferable, distorted electronic effects (title-track). Toss in the nervous, layered melody of "Hello Sweet Visual" -- with its eye of the storm syrupy vocal overtone and grungy undertone -- and the symphonic outro to "Key Factors the Devil Overlooked," and you have an album that finds its identity in a lovely, perverse lack thereof. Or in other words that may, but shouldn't scare you off -- art rock. Yes, art rock. Art rock. Art rock. Art rock. Accessible, heavy art rock that doesn't stop at pretentious noir. Manic art rock as a bipolar parasite clinging to low-end melodies and salivating climaxes. Living art rock as a three-dimensional being not content with merely flashing skin and running -- tearing through organs and ripping out bone marrow to save your life and shake your hand and lick your head from lobe to temple. The cliche stands -- organized chaos in that brutal, enjoyable, challenging, edifying way. Peace. War. Reformation. Viva.
Other coverage for this album
Dead Zine 2000Reviewed by thOrNSometimes I wait quite awhile on doing a review of a CD in hopes that it will grow on me and I can give it a more fair and or favorable review. I keep putting this CD in hoping to like it more each time but every time I take it out again and frown. It's just not that good. The elements on their own aren't bad, it's just when you add them all up that the sum is all wrong. The guitar work is weird…Dead Zine 2000Reviewed by Hey YouIf I remember correctly, when Anguish Unsaid's first album came out, I read in HM Magazine that Steve Saxby from Training For Utopia had said that it was "chaotic", among other things. I thought, "Well, if a guy from TFU can think it's chaotic, it must be pretty darn chaotic." Well, that album was, to the point of driving me to insanity along with it. Well, this one has that effect multiplied…Similar sounding releases
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