Crisis

The often neglected NYC-based outfit Crisis are back, now based in L.A., but with signature sound intact. It’s as difficult and painful as ever, in all the same good and bad ways. Their music is jarring, disjointed, artsy, punked-up metal with absolutely nothing to grab on to, yet it remains admirable nonetheless. Somewhere alongside the cool drumming, post-everything, apocalypse-embracing riffs and lead growler Karyn’s relentless vocal attack (again, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but give her credit for always mixing it up), one can find their way to the core of the Crisis sound —complete alienation and big city depression. They manage to create a vibe with their albums, although here that vibe is once again competing for conversation time along with the unpleasant production sound. It’s the general sense of bad times that make me fear listening to this album exactly as much as I enjoy it.