3 out of 5

Label: Reptilian Records

Produced by: Oliver Dahl

There’s not a lot about this that doesn’t automatically feel spot on, from the group’s / album’s name, to its weird but hilarious artwork, to song titles that reek of 90s ‘tude, to – of course – the ongoing, rootsy pummel of Touch and Go / Sub Pop sludge mixed with some Southern crunch, as mastered by some Swedes.

Trauma Cake swings between Tad-like slings of stop-start riffage with reverbed vocals, to call-and-response rawkers, cutting the difference between the jangle of latter-day Scissorfight and their earliest, punked out hardcore efforts.

If any of these buzzwords mean anything to you, one track of Trauma Cake will not only tell the tale, but hook you into another track, proving out Bacon Wagon’s decades-in-the-making (the roots of the band going back to the early 00s) special sauce: knowing how to mix up the aforementioned influences to put just enough into each song to keep them unique, but without stepping away from a core sound and snarl. While that’s also ultimately what holds the album back – the songs are ultimately interchangeable; there are singles and catchy choruses but not necessarily a defining moment that is built to, or any real discernible vibe in the lyircs – but there’s absolutely value in keeping your album solid from end-to-end, as that’s a rare occurrence for any genre.

So Trauma Cake – if you’ll forgive some metaphor wandering – may not have much in terms of icing, but neither is it made from any filler: every piece satisfies, and you can eat that whole cake and still have room left over for more.