snag. - Death Doula

As someone who is old enough to personally remember and have participated in 90s hardcore (aka "screamo," aka "skramz"), I look at a lot of the bands doing that sound today with ambivalence. Most bands playing this sound now don't quite recreate what I appreciated about the music at the time, leaving me feeling a little disconnected from what they're doing. This isn't a critique. It shouldn't recreate that feeling for me. I was a kid, and it was a different time, and they're doing what makes sense to them, not to me. 

Having said that, there are a handful of bands that somehow manage to absolutely nail the vitality of that sound to my ears. Portrayal of Guilt and Frail Body, for example, both come to mind. There's just something about both those bands that captures the earnestness of 90s hardcore to me.

Add snag. to that list. 

What now gets called "skramz," at its best, always feels like it's about to come apart at the seams. Like the songs are barely held together by sheer force of youthful will. I remember a friend of mine saying, when we were kids, that listening to The Khayembii Communiqué (still one of the best bands of that era) made him anxious because you couldn't imagine how they were going to get to the end of the song and not fall apart. And then, somehow, they did, and it was magic. 

snag. rides this balance of control and chaos with unrelenting precision throughout Death Doula, creating a feeling of nervous beauty that complements the lyrical themes of the album perfectly. They write songs about finding community and connection in a world falling apart due to climate change, using the rawness of the music as a sweat-soaked vehicle to convey that message. It makes for a listen that is equal parts urgent, unsettling, and transcendent, and it has been in my regular rotation for a few weeks now. Check it out if you're into this sound at all. They're easily one of the best bands I've heard in this vein recently.