‘3 melted candles, And you’re out of time, Poisoned flower, On the vine, Cut down, Punished, I become something more free’ (Blessed And Punished)

Midwest hardcore has an admirable habit of evolving in its own quite distinctive directions, a tradition proudly upheld by G.O.O.N. on this, their second full-length and follow-up to 2019’s Natural Evil.  It is an album that positively bristles with a nervously instinctual energy.  It swings almost incessantly between discordantly chaotic hardcore and swells of cosmic-tinged melodicism.

But its defining feature is, perhaps, the band’s ability to maintain a remorseless sense of groove throughout these oscillations.  The key to this dynamic is the band’s strident, resonant bass lines. These inject a consistently swaggering thrust, while the guitar weaves its intriguing interlacing of the burly and the psychedelic.

This juxtaposition is also reflected in the vocals – the delivery is snarled and urgent, while the lyrics contrastingly evoke a hazy montage of absurdist imagery and fractured dreamscapes.  Highlights include the bludgeoning fury of Black Egg and the frenzied Nobody’s Calling.  The album also features a sweeping cover of 1971’s Do It by experimental London rockers Pink Fairies.