3 out of 5

Label: Gasoline Boost

Produced by: big’n

An early distribution nab by Skin Graft Records, big’n has a similar abrasive vibe to many of the label’s initial outputs – Shorty, Mount Shasta, Dazzling Killmen – and those groups’ affinities for working with a like-minded noisester like Steve Albini, who’s thanked in Cutthroat’s liner notes.  But big’n burned pretty fast and bright, hitting with the visceral shrieks of Dazzling Killmen tuned through a more straight forward (though abrasively recorded) rock punch, dropping two short and shouty albums before internal troubles apparently tore them apart.  The compositions on Cutthroat, their debut, are boiled down to mostly a fine point, pummeling out of the gate with a harsh guitar riff and bouncing bass and drums, lead singer William Akins rarely settling into something less than a strangled screech as he spits short, generally indiscernible lines atop the two minutes or so a track lasts.  The thing is, when the group slows down to actually compose a beginning, middle and end – such as the stunning opener ‘Chinese Jet Pilot,’ or the comparatively slow (…and then fast) ‘Musket’ – the tracks are absolutely noteworthy, broaching a pretty awesome extreme that totters on the edge of rock toward hardcore.  Elsewhere, though, we get some stunning blasts with some pretty cool bridges or breakdowns, as on ‘King Hot Pants,’ but the songs don’t shuffle the mood enough to become too discernible from one another, requiring some odd song snippet filler in-between tracks seemingly just to break things up.  Thankfully, the group is smart enough to keep the runtime short, and the ear-catching moments are spread evenly throughout such that you can definitely dig the disc for an entire listen before the somewhat repetitive sound might begin to wear.