Sect

Sect

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Aug 3, 2016

7
Supergroups don't get much heavier than Sect.
 
That the band features Canadian punk and hardcore great Chris Colohan (Left for Dead, Burning Love, Cursed) on vocals is worth the price of admission alone — he's just as pissed off about the state of the world as he's ever been — but with the rest of its membership having performed with the likes of Earth Crisis, Catharsis and Racetraitor (not to mention drummer Andy Hurley's current job as the drummer of Fall Out Boy), the band possesses a pedigree in punishment.
 
Though certainly steeped in its members' collective involvement in mosh-minded, '90s straight edge hardcore, Sect's self-titled debut is perfectly in touch with society's current caustic climate. Beginning with an old Gore Vidal quote on police brutality, "Curfew" quickly ramps up the intensity with a series of full-throttle kick-snare-kick-snare beats, detuned guitar aggression and Colohan's furious condemnation of cops. His howls allude to the "rough ride" 2015 death of Freddie Gray, made all the more painfully poignant considering the charges against Baltimore police officers were dropped last month. He caps his verbal assault with the viciously critical "no lives matter now."
 
Like he has in years past, Colohan also stirs up ire towards religion, spitting on the Old and New Testaments and calling Christianity a "system that preys on its young and weak" on "Interference" before mocking faith with a sarcastically screamed, The Omen-referencing "It's All for You" on "Seventh Extinction."
 
The rest of the group put on a clinic on tracks like "All or Nothing," which moves from gut-rending mosh passages to trilled guitar leads and Andy Hurley's speedy snare hits. Devastating d-beat odyssey "Total Void" is full of lightning-quick riffery and haunted, descending melodies. The record ends with "Sinking," an anti-drug anthem whose ominous-yet-melancholy twin guitar lines conjure the complex menace of peak-period Integrity.
 
The liner notes to Sect explain that the quintet are "SXE, Vegan, and Old." Old, sure — but the group of veterans play like a band a fraction of their age.
(Independent)

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