INSIDE NOISE Week of 9/1: Sprain
Since we spent the weekend at Muddy Roots, this week we only got around to reviewing the new Sprain record for Inside Noise. However, this album makes up for the lack of others accompanying it by its sheer magnitude and quality.
The Lamb as Effigy by Sprain
Nihilism often gets an unfairly positive, quirky, and fun reputation in pop culture, a values misalignment that The Lamb as Effigy by Sprain thoroughly dismantles. Sprain writhes in unparallelled suffering as their closely-held belief that none of their decisions bear any consequences careens head-on into their soul-shredding guilt for their past mistakes. All spirituality in their life comes in the form of unfulfilling sex, the two partners offering one another up as a sacrafice to nothing in particular, which results only in senseless pain. The instrumentals here reflect some of the great dissonant albums of the recent past, immediately earning The Lamb as Effigy a seat at the table with Spiderland, You Won't Get What You Want, and Deathconsciousness. To set this record apart, Sprain employs a grating, punishing violin sound alongside some of the most passionate vocals I've ever heard. The song forms here follow the breadcrumbs tossed out by the aimless wanderings of suicidal depression, lending deeper meaning to the equally nomadic lyrics. The loose morality offered by the dwindling monoculture provides just enough guardrailing to inspire guilt when driven through; we blow past the barriers with broken headlights into an infinity of anxiety, loss, and starvation. 9/10. -Michael
