by Maximum Roach’s debut album, Dry Rot, is a blistering array of feedback, guttural vocalizing, and high-tempo drumming. The vocalist reportedly tracked the songs while nude in a walk-in freezer in order to make himself as uncomfortable as possible. The result is, undoubtedly, strained and tortured vocalizing which sounds as if it’s thrashing against the whole of existence, set over a collection of frenetic noise-punk songs that clock in at a minute or so each.
I first saw Maximum Roach at a house show in Tempe, AZ circa 2015. The performance was frenzied, energetic, and aggressive. I left with a 4 song hand-sharpied EP in a cardboard sleeve, which became one of a dozen CDs that worked its way into my rotation. I hadn’t heard much from the band since, however, outside of a handful of shows around the area in that same time frame. As we now know, however, “big bug never dies.”
Dry Rot‘s vocals can often veer into the indiscernible, but what can be made out are surreal and impassioned visions of flea-infested heads, selfish existences, a friend getting picked up by facial recognition technology on a drug possession charge, a painful slip into cardiac arrest, and euphorically witnessing the end of the world. The songs are chock-full of syrupy bass, effects-laden distorted guitar forays, and powerful drumming. While most songs on the record end in a dissolution of feedback, the closer, “EKG”, offers a brief and peaceful reprieve of cicada buzzing in the final seconds on the record. Overall, it’s a powerful and loud punk album that’s pressure-cooked to deliver.
