4 out of 5

Label: Solid Brass Records

Produced by: Greg Obis (remastered by)

This is one of those bands that I think, had I discovered later, I may not have “heard” them, lost amongst a larger pool of loud guitar-rock acts. But: that wasn’t the path, and I’m happier for it, as ABPK have long occupied a corner of my collection that’s rarely matched – groups that can be this loud and almost atonal while also being… poppy? It’s a strange blend, and one the group didn’t always nail, but on this debut EP – yes.

Although even that I’ve had to come around to. My original take on this set was kind of middling as well; that without some forward momentum, slower tracks like ‘Welcome to the Well’ can drag. A little remastering can go a long way, y’all.

Remastered by Greg Obis, ‘Well’ in particular has new life: giving breath to the percussions clashes and space between the blasts of guitar; across the record, Justin Sinkovich’s monotone vocal has more weight, and more passion. Things maybe err on the side of being too loud – bear in mind this was already a loud band – but Obis picks out levels that let nuances in the guitar and bass playing bleed through.

Additionally, we get four demos form the session that led in to this EP, including one track that was previously only on an odds and sods set put together digitally by Sinkovich; his notes there mention how good the demos sounded – equal to / preferred over the studio stuff in some cases – and if the demos haven’t been remastered by Obis (I don’t think so – they sound similar), then I’d wonder if the direction to Greg wasn’t to try and match the demos’ sound, because I agree: they sound damn good. The “new” track is a solid, almost slowcore rocker that bleeds the ABPK style of feedback and mid-range pummeling. I love it.

Besides the over-indexing on volume, I do think it’s a miss that the notes on the demo session from that digital link weren’t included with the liner notes to give some context.