Album Notes

Severe Severe employs rhythms that sometimes require acclimation by the listener, but they reward the effort with a surprising consistency and quality over the length of a song that has matured into a particularly good live set. Among the songs to be featured on their new album, "Awakening Fire" displays some of the characteristic traits of their sound - tight, driving drumming, relentless movement in the guitar and bass punctuated by short bursts of emotional/electrical release, and the kind of economy of sound and wiry presentation that has its roots in the better post-punk bands of the early 80s.

By Aaron Rude