by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Spew's debut EP, Only The Worst, is an insanely wild ride, so in the words of Jurassic Park's ever wise Samuel L. Jackson, "hold on to your butts." An "exercise in maximalism and velocity," the duo of Jackson Martel (SUPERTEEN, Off Drugs) and Max Goldstein (Vishnu Basement, Tundrastomper) got together back in the Fall of 2014 and decided to get a bit nuts. They recorded Only The Worst which sat dormant for years, but as our world continues to collapse around us, the time for Spew has arrived. The band are noisy. Their music is chaotic. Most of all though, Spew's debut is violently complex and undeniably engaging.
The Western Mass duo's debut takes about three seconds to make their presence known as Max Goldstein begins his tireless onslaught of the drum kit. Over a shifting array of blast beats, stampeding polyrhythms, and dense distortion, Spew burn down the establishment and "the vultures" with exhaustive fury. Throughout Only The Worst, each song gets a short moment feedback (consider it the calm before the storm) and then the skies open up as Jackson Martel digs into dirgy riffs and manic shouts. Blending elements of post-hardcore, math rock, skate metal, and noise punk to their own spastic whim, Spew's debut is unrelenting and thoroughly abrasive. Built on dizzying menace ("Bad Egg") and jagged opposition ("No Reference Cartoon"), the duo's technical ability is unquestionably phenomenal but it's their destructive spirit that really shines in only the worst of ways. Devastation you can get behind.
Spew's Only The Worst is out February 10th via Sad Cactus Records.