Musical Anxiety
Northern California post-hardcore outfit State Faults have released their newest record Resonate/Desperate, a tense, agonizing, self-induced anxiety attack that might drive you insane during the cold, bleak months of winter. Following in the trend of melodic hardcore influenced screamo bands that have been getting attention lately, State Faults assault their listeners with desperate sounding screams and chaotic instrumentals that fill the listeners’ heads with a cacophony of uneasiness and misery that won’t quite go away once the record is over. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
From the start, Resonate/Desperate-– a very apt title for the record– pulls no punches regarding the onslaught of unhappiness that was to commence through the rest of the record, beginning with the track “Meteor” that puts your ears on edge for the next 11 songs. It’s not just the pained screams that make this record so anxiety-inducing, but as songs like “Disintegration” show, the instruments can put their listener in just as much an uncomfortable space with dissonant chords and droning, hypnotic drums. And like any good musical panic attack should, Resonate/Desperate ends on a haunting and very uneasy-sounding note with the track “Old Wounds” that closes with a few piano notes that will leave you feeling uncomfortable, hopeless, and masochistically wanting to start the record right over again.
Fans of the new wave of screamo, led by bands such as Pianos Become the Teeth and Loma Prieta, will definitely find a familiar and enjoyable sound in State Faults’ newest record. State Faults, signed to kings of emo and post-hardcore No Sleep Records, have kept themselves on the screamo map with this newest release, and we can only hope that it’s a sign of things to come in the future. Resonate/Desperate is a solid release to add to your collection of modern screamo bands that put lesser bands in their place– just maybe don’t listen to it during finals week or after a bad breakup.
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