Anguish Unsaid :: "Wanting . . . Waiting"

Anguish Unsaid would mark one of my impulse buys, an album I bought without ever listening to it first, just purchased because of the band's name, or the cover, or an image on the back. In this case, it was a combination of the three.

When I got in my car and slid it into my CD player, my initial emotion was one of disappointment. The CD starts off with indecipherable guitars, a high-pitched screaming voice that I can't understand a word of, and just a lot of unintelligable noise. Suddenly, I realized why they were on a record label I had never heard of: Bettie Rocket Records.

The second song, which is untitled, is just a lot of distortion and noise from guitars in the background while the lead singer basically preaches in a somewhat angry sense, which seems hypocritical in its own way, but a lot of hardcore bands seem to be taking this approach recently, another being Training for Utopia.

The third track, "Zombie," begins to show some of the distinction of this band. They combine the kind of abrasive noise Training for Utopia possesses, but add the types of melodies that seem somehow reminiscent of For Squirrels, a one-hit wonder from the mid-90's who wrote a secular song about Kurt Cobain's death. Granted, they might not have been a one-hit wonder if it wasn't for the death of their own singer shortly after "Might K.C." was released.

Anguish Unsaid continues with the fourth song, "Confession in Times of Tribulation," the first song on the album that really caused me to start enjoying this band. With a mellow opening of simple chords, a low bass line, and an almost jazz drum beat, the song then eases into distorted riffs of the same. While the first minute may be some of the best distorted guitar play I've heard in awhile (just because it makes you tap your foot and nod your head), the song then eases into their general sense of noise making, a technique Helmet should possess a patent for.

The fifth track is "Send Away," another song that starts off with some cool riffs. This time, however, Jon Edwards sings along with some cool riffs instead of waiting for them to ease into undecipherable notes of general noise. Throughout the album, however, his voice remains extremely high, so don't even consider purchasing this album if you don't like high-pitched voices, particularly when they are screaming.

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