Worship & Tribute
At the vanguard of hardcore’s evolution stand five Long Island-born straight-edgers who sport a progressive approach to punk rock on this fantastic second album. Frontman Daryl Palumbo's lyrically adventurous songs ("The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports," "Trailer Park Jesus") wage war on cultural orthodoxy, his rocky, undulating vocals morphing between a raw-nerve croon and a tortured shriek that's sharp enough to cut glass. The band differ from their nu-metal and conventional hardcore peers in the arrangements: tracks like "Mu Empire" and "Cosmopolitan Bloodloss" combineFaith No More-style sweep with a complex, post-hardcore structure that putsFugazito shame. "Ape Dos Mil" reins in the pure noise as guitarists Justin Beck and Todd Weinstock turn down and wring shimmering walls of ambience out of their instruments and Palumbo weaves a tale of obsessive love. Glassjaw are a thoroughly uncompromising band, as fearlessly individualistic as At the Drive-In and every bit as good.Worship and Tributepresents the new hardcore heroes-in-waiting.--Louis Pattison