XETAS - The Cypher LP

Highly recommended.

"This is Xetas’ third album, and of their Tarot-themed second, The Tower, I said, “Xetas, out of Austin, make an unholy racket, a noisy, feedback blurred firehose spray of sound that does not quite obscure a tendency towards tunefulness.” Same here, over the course of the album. There is plenty of pummel and turmoil and fast-slash aggression in The Cypher. But in “The Mariner” and, to a lesser extent, “The Bystander,” that tunefulness is center forward.

That doesn’t imply any sort of softening or dilution, by the way. “Bystander,” in particular, flares and flails with blowtorch energy, laying waste to the guitar squalling, drum battering spaces between sing-along choruses. “The Doctor,” begins in a Molotov cocktail of distorted guitar, first buzzing with smoke and feedback, then catching in full flame. The thump, thump, thump of kick drum, the clanking menace of bass push the beat from behind, fast and relentless. An ominous chant — “I’m running out of patience” — ratchets up the tension; with each repetition, the words get sharper, harder-edged, more threatening. “The Hierophant” (possibly a holdover from the Tarot album) blares rumbling bass driven roar like Burma or Shellac, spiked and heavy. “The Xero” jacks speed and noise and battling shouts to warp speed like a mixed gender Minor Threat. In sum, the loud, distorted, cathartic parts of Xetas are as body-churning as ever, and if you love punk rock, you’re going to want The Cypher. It’s just that now they’ve also written a couple of hits." - Jennifer Kelly (Dusted)

"“somewhere between uptempo post-punk (“The Teacher” could easily have been a lost track from Mission Of Burma’s “Forget” compilation), and savage screamo-what-have-you lies an exceptionally well-done album from Xetas.” (HEX)

We also have The Redeemer and The Tower in stock (just not in the website yet)

RIYL: Mission of Burma, Pg.99