2 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Produced by: Kurt Ballou

Man, there is something struggling to emerge from Jesuit, and I guess eventually would, with Nate Newton going on to Converge – a band who’s early / mid years share some commonalities with Jesuit – and Brian Benoit to Dillinger Escape Plan; in this form, though, it’s proto-everything and sorta nothing quite distinct, with some quality grooves of bass and drums never congealing; generic lyrics generically shouted and no real peaks. The 6-minute Cop Glasses B-side is a great example: the A-side’s songs are kind of mushy blend of early Botch math and a hardcore punk sound, but Glasses kicks out with a really solid, direct hook, rawly recorded by Kurt Ballou. …And then the group plays that hook for all 6, instrumental minutes. There’s some noise happening, and sometimes a chord is played louder or the percussion slammed harder, but it’s not really building to anything. As a punctuation on an album of some peaks and valleys, this could work; here, it just feels indicative of the lack of direction of the band, seeming like they just wanted to play in the scene and throwing some material together. That’s not to say you wouldn’t rock out live, and that behind the aforementioned mush there isn’t a lot of skill, but there’s not enough identity to make this something that sticks.