4 out of 5

Label: Southern Lord

Produced by: Kurt Ballou

Continuing on their path to becoming more like Converge – a dismissive sounding statement, but this is a good thing! – Baptists maintain their intensity, and positive partnership with Kurt Ballou, finding ways together to express much more nuance within their barrage of sound.

Everything has gotten better for this band: as impressive as their musical chops were from the outset, weighted by drummer Nick Yacyshyn’s on-a-dime drops into thrash or hardcore mode as needed – with precise fills in any inbetween space – that’s been appended by more risk taking from guitarist Danny Marshall, which, yes, results in those Converge comparisons, but the band maintain a bit more streamlined approach that keeps them in a crust / punk territory.

While vocalist Andrew Drury is still shouting within his single range, which still results in a top-down sense of limitation, where all elements must be mixed to equal intensity, by dint of those more experimental song structures being employed more often, Ballou has a few other production levers to pull to amp things up, and give moments on the disc to shine, and breathe. This really does offer up some stunning, barn-storming tracks, which also underline (with a lyric sheet for assistance) how much Drury’s writing has improved as well, translating typical hardcore nihilism into more contemplative rallying cries – pleas for thoughtfulness fueling the anger, instead of just anger.

I think fully leveraging their bass, and if Drury can find viable ways of changing up his vocals, the group can push past some final barriers, and perhaps become players in the field who aren’t always saddled with a sounds-like tag.