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The angry and hard-hitting 11 – the sophomore effort of Bay Area-based Wolves and Thieves – is solid punk/hardcore. Melody has been relegated to a place of secondary importance. Jeremy Lux can’t resist the scream-yell delivery, but when he actually sings he’s pretty good. The first half is better than the last. There’s some excellent guitar work here, making this into a solid punk album. No FCCs detected. Recommended 1, 2, and 6 – plus 5 if you’re looking for an awesome guitar solo.

1*. 1:05 Starts with five seconds or so of distortion. Rather dark mood, but harmonic chorus with nice guitars.
2*. 2:01 Initially mellower than most of their other songs, but grows intense. A lot of emotion communicated through the singer’s voice; nice clean guitar solo three-quarters of the way through.
3. 1:11 Despairing and self-pitying. Consistent singing and driving guitars.
4. 1:49 Interesting pseudo-political reflection on verdicts and “where the truth is.” Slower than their other stuff – which is to say, still pretty fast.
5. 2:25 Overlapping vocals. Some awesome guitar work – both in an awesome solo and under the vocals. Good mix of vocals and pure instrumental. Last 30 seconds slow, with no singing and lots of distortion.
6*. 2:18 Opening riff reminiscent of surf-rock. More singing (rather than yelling) and more melodic than their other songs. My favorite.
7. 1:10 Good guitar work, but chorus is repetitive and grating.
8. 2:35 A solid effort that starts out slow and then adds their characteristic driving drums and scream-voice. Very rock-like guitar work on this track.
9. 0:42 Very fast, but nothing really stands out here.
10. 2:37 Lyrically interesting. Ends very suddenly, with last 9 seconds being dead air.