If any hardcore fans reading this really aren’t clued up with theoccureences of the past few months, then let ‘Anxiety and Everything Else’ be a full blown fog horn that DEAD SWANS are well and truly back. From Nicholas Worthington’s first vocal on opener ‘I’ve Been Trying to Leave’ (which has got to be one of the angriest things anybody has heard in a long time) to the same throat torture of the EP’s closing moments, the UK hardcore giants have shown that they still mean business.
The title of the record seems to do a lot of justice to the band’s sound, and these tracks take that feeling a little further than before with songs like ‘Summer Of Hate’ and ‘You Can Only Blame Yourself’ bringing out that anxious edge through the darker aspects of their music.
Previously, they’ve reworked past songs into faster and tighter versions, but not much has changed with ‘Dead Until Dark’ when it arrives three tracks in. Nonetheless, it’s still killer to hear it given the production qualities it deserves. Arguably the best track of this release, ‘Southern Blue’, sees the band wrap things up with a pounding final track, which fades away on an unstoppable riff and tearing screams.
Maybe one or two of the tracks don’t punch quite as high as the distraught rage featured on the ‘Sleepwalkers’ album, but the urgency is present and correct, and so is everything their fans could have hoped for. Looking forward though, it’s going to be extremely interesting to see where they take things from here; in the future, they’ve got a real chance to step things up to a whole new level.
JAMES FOX