CD review, Feb 09. Plague Mass – Living Among Meat Eaters (Noise Appeal Records/Deafcult Records)

Converge cake with a 00’s D-beat crust punk topping. That’s the recipe for these apparently privileged punks from the very lovely country of Austria. Don’t know if they come clean about the privilege because their parents are all minted and so someone might call them out on it, but nevertheless, their left wing politics are generally admirable to me. To be fair it’s not bad, but I’d rather listen to Tragedy than Cursed so Plague Mass are going to strain for a look in. How many bands do we need of these styles? Hundreds I guess. All that said, they’re pretty damn tight and thrashing, it’s mixed in a heavy manner, with the vocals quite low in the mix so they’re not overpowering as can be the case with caustic singers. Points for having the mildly emo-breakdowns in a gruff voice instead of the usual melodic high pitch, but the well worn template is still there. I guess if you like this stuff, Plague Mass bring plenty of their own flavor, it’s heavy, noisy shit and varied too, but it’s been done many times already.