3 out of 5

Label: High Dive Records

Produced by: Justin Mantooth (Bummer), Anthony Diaz De Leon (Pinko)

This gets off to a really strong start on the Bummer side, but both Bummer and Pinko end up playing in such a similar style that this split ends up losing some nuance.

Same-soundeyness is something that has somewhat (to me) limited both of these bands on their solo releases. Interestingly, I wouldn’t have initially put them side by side in that sense, and vetting Pinko’s material on its own, I do think they kind of over-indexed on the vocals side to meet Matt Perrin’s throaty howl, with each band’s chosen producer going for clarity but not necessarily range, meaning that this aforementioned limitation ended up applying across the whole split.

…Except, again, towards the beginning. Where Bummer does stand out is when they create some space within their songs, and similarly, Pinko’s tendency toward punk makes the punctuation of some breakdowns in their tracks a lot of fun. So if you’re starting on the Bummer side, they make use of two shorter tracks, including the instrumental Holy Terror, to lead in to their more typical, hardcore screamy fare on ‘Bossk Hogg’. I like this fare, quite a bit, it just gains a lot more power when it gets some build up, as happens here. The following two songs are quality, if remaining at essentially the same cadence and intensity as Bossk, with closer Birthday Snake throwing in a catchy shoutalong chorus.

Pinko’s Guillermo Mendez has a kind of ranty yell that gives the group good forward momentum; as stated, though, Guillermo screams it up here, which shifts the group’s vibe closer to Bummer’s, and furthermore lessens some of the quiet/loud juxtaposition of their music. There’s really no build up like on the Bummer side; though each track has some momentary breakdowns that make your head bob along, it’s all about the same register and pace.

There’s nothing necessarily essential from either group on here. But it’s definitely not a bad listen, and is short enough to get you going without the limited sounds I’m riffing on becoming too problematic – excepting the lack of a single. Standing back from the set itself, Bummer had such a small run overall that I’m always impressed with how hard they brought it on every song, every release, and this add to that mythos; for Pinko, while this isn’t their most enduring outing, I do kind of appreciate how they (seem to) play around with their sound slightly, depending on the group they’re paired with on their various splits.