Photo by Michelle Kinney.
Brooklyn’s Pyrex joins Die Slaughterhaus Records’ new wave of grimey post-punk adversaries with the “Struck Down” b/w “Staying Alive” 7-inch.
Both numbers plunge the group into menacing depths of real-world dejection while revealing a dark sense of humor. Atlanta expat. guitar player and vocalist Joe Hardwick, bass player Arbon Elrich, and drummer Steven Fisher summon bludgeoning intensity with “Struck Down.”
On the flipside, a perfectly nasty cover of the Bee Gees’ disco-era classic “Staying Alive” feels like a Killed By Death deep cut that was captured at a construction site—grounded in dense rhythm and noise—as Hardwick’s distorted growl finds new meaning in the lyrics, “Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me.”
NOTE: The digital versions of these songs, mastered by Graham Tavel, sound notably crisp when compared to the spacious and deeply textured vinyl renderings that are courtesy of Ryan Bell.
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A version of this review first appeared in the November issue of Record Plug Magazine. Grab a print copy at your nearest record store, coffee shop, pizza place, or music venue.
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