3 out of 5

Label: Southern Lord

Produced by: Kurt Ballou

When you get to the more sonically limited genres – I’m going way general there, but think of the three chords of punk – often the differentiating factor between one band and another is something very immediate, and then you can start to hunt out the details after more thorough listens. With hardcore punk / crust / thrash, that “factor,” at least to my ears, if often intensity: every band that’s able to sound that much harder or harsher than the other gets to stand out, and how long they stand out then comes down to those details – the minutiae.

Baptists, as is the case with a lot of thrashy hardcore, owes a debt the Napalm Death, and they emerged in an early 2010s scene that found many bands tapping into seemingly newly discovered levels of volume, often helped along by producer Kurt Ballou. While there were some other groups that maybe hit a little harder – NAILS come to mind – Baptists combined that with a Converge-like sense of scope in their song structure, and also the insane precision and wallop evidenced by octopus-armed drummer Nick Yacyshyn. So you first hear the intensity, and nod approvingly, and then get caught up by the other ingredients Baptists bring to the fold.

On Bushcraft, their debut, there are still some things holding them back, however, and it prevents the album from really making the most of those ingredients. Mainly: singer Andrew Drury’s one-stop level of yelling isn’t especially distinctive; and the group’s aspirations for something beyond crust and hardcore stereotypes butts against their love for the same. In both cases, this means the tracks on Bushcraft don’t quite push beyond a threshold of “loud and angry” – even if technically super impressive – until the last few songs, when things open up a bit. But even then, Drury’s shouts perhaps require Ballou to not overmix the other elements – since there’s no range to his pitch or volume – limiting the depth of what the compositions might otherwise emotionally achieve, and I further suspect Drury’s wish for this lyrics to be read gets mixed up with writing eff-off anthems, resulting in a lyric sheet that’s sincerely split between eye-rolly angst and some really well considered visuals and expressions.

So not quite as intense as some others; not quite as experimental as some others; Baptists make positive and notable steps in both directions, making their debut kind of middling overall, but still attention grabbing in various ways, and certainly indicative of the band being worth watching.