Anxiety
Anxiety
2016

Review by Joey (is anyone else even doing this anymore or am I all alone in this cruel world?)

Genre/s: Hardcore Punk, Post-Punk, Art Punk, Industrial, Power Electronics, Noise
For Fans Of: Feederz, SPK, Minimal Man, GRRR

I don’t even know where the fuck to start with this LP. It is, without a doubt, one of the coolest things to come out this year. Or really in recent memory, honestly. When I clicked play on LVEUM’s bandcamp, I was not prepared at all, and I don’t think anything I say in this review can fully prepare any of you. It’s not only that it’s really that out there, but it’s also that fucking good.

Anxiety is a new band out of the UK — no surprise based on how much truly interesting shit (No Form, Perspex Flesh, Frau, etc) has been coming out of there in recent years — who feature members of The Lowest Form (another favorite) and others. But I’m not sure that really has any significance in terms of how this sounds. Anxiety sounds like…well…anxiety — yea yea, I know it’s corny. Their unique blend of all those various genres I listed above is an unstoppable force of nervous energy; like a sonic panic attack. Everything about what Anxiety does has a touch of madness; even the more straightforward (relatively speaking) hardcore punk leaning tracks reek of influence from oddball bands like Feederz and Saccharine Trust. Add in the early SPK and Monte Cazazza-style electronics, The Ex and GRRR-style art punk, dark and ominous textures, and confusing progressions…and you still probably can’t imagine what this sounds like. The best way I can even semi-accurately describe Anxiety is that they sound like a hardcore punk Minimal Man. And how fucking sick is that?

I listened to this ten times in a row the day I heard it. And I’m still playing it over and over and over. If you don’t download this immediately, that’s a moral decision you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life.

Tracklist:
1. Dark And Wet
2. Fool In The Shower
3. The Worst
4. Addicted To Punishment
5. Human Hell
6. Delayed
7. Trapped Shut
8. Sewer In My Mind
9. VMD

DOWNLOAD

EDIT: The parenthetical is a joke referring to how I’m the only one doing reviews on FBN anymore, not a cry of desperation.