‘We wanna break our chains, But can’t break away from tearing each other apart, You want me to take a stand? You tie me up and still expect me to lend you a helping hand’ (No End In Sight)

Yeah, it’s Yambag.  So, you know the score.   It’s fast – always.  It’s relentless – always.  It’s 11 tracks in just under 11 minutes.  And while all of this is wholly accurate, it conveys only part of the story.  The sheer precision of the whiplash tempo changes melded with the Cleveland band’s intrinsic velocity create an album that has not an ounce of extravagance yet still brims with an unrestrained brio.

From the eruption of opener Ancient Relic until the trippy calm of closer El Funeral De Mr. E, the pace is remorselessly frenetic.  The drums remain the fulcrum, furiously fast, morphing into frenzied blast beats when the intensity threatens to overwhelm, only occasionally relenting into a more mid-paced groove.  Yambag eschew the breakdown, the only moments of relative respite offered are when the drums briefly duck from view to allow the jolting guitars or rumbling bass to fleetingly carry the weight.

Often, with music of such intensity, the lyrics find themselves constrained to a similar brevity.  Not here though as the sneering, rhythmically spat vocals unleash a tirade of deftly constructed, rapid-fire tirades as they span the chains of tradition (Ancient Relic) and battling a sense that social change can never be realised (No End In Sight), to the dangerous distortions and misinformation of social media on the title track.