Includes d/l code.
Highly recommended.

II, the second full length from Austin, Texas trio Crooked Bangs, shuns the warmth of the sun in favour of a cold, disparate world in itself that begs to be misjudged and mislabeled. The album is an altogether unsettling—and at times puzzling—witches brew of searing primal sounds, discordant genre shifts, and also focused, practically poppy arrangements and vocal lines.

Singer/Bassist Leda Ginestra’s voice is a stygian, clairvoyant force waging war on multiple fronts across the album’s 9 tracks, deftly juggling English and French, while the drums —generally dominating the coarse, boorish sounding mix— lead the band deeper into the hellscape forming around them as the album progresses.

Crooked Bangs are hacking through interesting, visceral territory, and the record is a dark departure from their tighter, decidedly more-punk-than-post debut.