‘The very thought of a full heart, my own volition: a violation, the audacity to feel ok, tremendous cost of living, tremendous cost of loving’ (Love Child)

Los Angeles’ Sweat comprise Tuna Tardugno on vocals, Anthony Rivera (Dangers, Daisy Chain) on drums, and Justin Smith (Ghostlimb, Graf Orlock, Dangers) on guitar / bass.  Love Child is their second full-length and follow-up to 2022’s Gotta Give It Up.  The band continue to forge a sound rooted in swaggering rock’n’roll infused hardcore, though this time injecting a notably more muscular edge.

Taut, surging riffage is underpinned by powerfully limber drumming, and while fierce solos remain, the band’s more melodic inclinations have been dialled back a touch in favour of a stomping physicality that defines Pair Of Dice and A Real Good Time, the raucously vibrant breakdowns that fuel Pure Display and Bad Taste, and the sheer innate danceability of Physical.  Throughout, unexpected flourishes inventively flare, ranging from the melodic crescendo on White Nectarines (‘I know, you know.  Stick a knife in 9.  I know, you know. Pull it out 6’) to the whispered interlude on the rampaging title track.

Meanwhile, snarled, rasping vocals, accompanied by a satisfyingly hearty range of grunts and growls, dissect the exploitative paradigm of our economic system.  The lyrics acerbically explore how we get lured into its rationality on Pair Of Dice (‘You will put in your all, tunnel vision focus, Til you realise you got got, There’s no repaying lifetime missed’), and how it systemically commodifies us on Commercial Pleasure (‘If they can’t break our brain, they’ll break our will, If they can’t lock us up, They’ll feed us pills’), an intention that White Nectarines nails as now barely disguised (‘You think they care? It’s designed this way’).