4 out of 5

Label: Highwater Records

Produced by: Eric Atkinson (recorded by)

Brutal emo punk from way-back-when, appealing more to the noise crowds out of Texas or Kentucky, effecting a particularly Breather Resist vibe, only…

While the EP’s title may seem eye-rolly stuff indicative of disaffected punkers, it ends up speaking more to Tintoretto’s style of pushing, and pushing, and pushing their songs – their material – past breaking points that you think have already been reached. The connection I’m making to the title is that when something impactful happens and you don’t feel it, perhaps you aim towards something even more impactful and see what happens then. I can’t claim to be able to parse all of the lyrics being (often) screamed by guitarist William Zientara, but what peeks through feels pretty literate: searching for meaning instead of just whining about the lack of it. And if that’s not in the words, it’s felt in the passionate delivery.

The emo tag isn’t due to this writing, though – it strays from bearing overbearing, save maybe some 10-buck word choices or references here and there (again, if I’m hearing things correctly) – rather, I’d say it’s just the tone of Zientara’s singing voice, which tickles that particular emo register, especially when matched to some Discord-y bridges. But the bass and drums kick in hard, and then another layer of guitars over the already heavy layer kicks in even harder, and then Zientara starts shouting like Jacob Bannon or someone, and this is pretty far past even the intensity of Breather Resist.

Which is really the only complaint, here: these songs hit hard and fast, and run to 6 or 7 minutes while doing so, making for a pretty crowded listen. It arguably feels rushed, even when the group is slowing down and trying to create some space. The space escalates also, I think: the noise kicks in, and we peel back for some instrumental bits or some singing (comparatively), then the music kicks back in in overdrive, meaning that the next “break” ends up kinda being at the level of the initial noise. It’s an intense experience.

And definitely a worthwhile one, making an impact in a sea of noisy rockers, likely especially in 1999 upon release, but even decades later, when I’m checking this thing out.