Leave it to Unsane to put on “the big hurt” AND make memorable songs. This career retrospective is actually worth your time to realize just how damn punishing these guys were with only bass, drums & guitar, no glossy production, no technical wankery just heavy-ass, noisy rock. As that cliché goes, these guys can to more with 2 notes than most bands can do with 20.
Somewhere between hardcore’s simplicity and the brutality of Big Black but sounding like neither. In short listening to this is like having a month straight of nothing but bad days. Get the message now!
(((1)))) Slow, bass intro, then LOUD & crashing into your skull!
(((2))) Super-rythmtic and sort of surf-like guitar then disorted yet audible vocals. Catchy yet pissed off. Gotta love those twangy tremelo parts.
(((3))) Funky-drummer (well, sort of) then lots of bass and lots & lots of low-end and at a sludgey (but a few paces faster than ‘doom’) speed.
((((4)))) A slow jackhammer pounding your eardrums. That twangy 60’s guitar with the really heavy rhythm sounds just brilliant. Lots of great, simple riffs, too. “I’m siiick - In my heeeeaaad!” Yep, that’s what they all say.
(((5))) Very LOUD throbbing bass, with everything else distorted to all fuck. Pretty good stuff here.
(((6))) Jeez, they even tune lower in this one! Slow, dredging bleakness something about someone being poisoned by lead on the job. What way to go. Well, at least this ain’t about that ‘satan’ guy.
((7)) A tune for the would-be Travis Bickle’s & Charles Whitman’s of the world. The lyrics aren’t all that audible though but the tune is pretty good.
((((8)))) A little more uh, ‘accessible’ but still straight-forward & easy to follow yet rather crushing!
((9)) Fucked up & noisy, bouncy rythmn.
(((10)))Slow & dirgy, and yep severly fucked-up sounding. These kind of songs don’t come from fuckin’ Orange Country that’s fer sure.
(((11))) Weird, bluesy harmonica & brooding bass. Then a chunky bass riff & such. Something like if AC/DC mixed with Little Walter with Travis Bickel on lead vocals. Melodic “damage rock”?
(((12))) Slow & brooding & just simply PISSED OFF! A baseball bat to every fuckin’ kneecap of every fuckin’ stupid-ass ‘emo’ & 'pop-punk' band polluting the airwaves.
(((13))) Twangy in a weird way & suuuuper bass-y the vox are even less melodic than any of the previous tracks....and this was on their major label debut! I shit you not! ha-ha!
((14)) Surfy/spy guitar with & noisy. I dig the guitars/bass but not much else.
((((15)))) Damn this intro just KILLS! Slow, pulverising & pounding. Flipper hitting Big Black with a ball-peen hammer (economy size, that is).
((16)) Lots of verrrry dirty sounding guitar harmonics not too unlike fellow NYC bands like Pussy Galore, verrrry early Sonic Youth and so forth. The vox are ultra low-fi & just warped.
(((17))) Oh fuckin’ aye - this is soooo awesome! One of the their best songs ever. Just a simple series of bashes to your hammer & stirrups. From one of their various collector nerd 7”ers.
((18)) Barren, bubbling oozing.
((((19)))) Massive rythmic pulsing & so forth. Taking the "New York Noise Rock" thing several steps beyond.
((((20)))) The original ‘Vandal X’ (from the Sub Pop single club 7” my fellow nerds).
FCC’s: “fuck you” but sung ultra-distorted & not all that audible. One of thee motherfuckingest heavy music songs EVER! Simple, super low-end laden & just killing your stupid ass notions of “brutal” or “extreme”.
(((21))) 1-2-3 punch of lunging bass, a deadly spray of screeching chords and so forth. Are you feeling claustrophobic yet? Has this monsterous "John Bonham/John Paul Jones on fucking PCP"-like rythmic bombast to it as well. (Via their late, great skin basher Charlie Ondrass)
((((22)))) Twangy yet brutal heavy fuckin’ rock like as in the rock of Gilbraltar! (FCCs “Fuck you” again rather distorted). Distorted to all shit & lo-fi & basically everything that makes this band & Big Black put polished turds like Pantera to shame!
(((23))) Ouch! Super cracked-up (pun intended) sounding. Lots of the usual battering. You know the drill. (((24))) Probably the closest they ever got to sounding even remotely to say, Mudhoney, Pussy Galore or later Black Flag (minus the Sabbath fixation)