Seasick / Don't Wake Up

Digging through some vinyl sent to me last year I came across this split featuring Seasick and Don't Wake Up that I never got around to spinning. Having quite enjoyed Seasick's Awakenings EP released earlier this year, I figured it was worth giving it a real shot.

It's a good thing I did. Seasick is obviously a more raw version of themselves here, a budding outfit who fits more cleanly under a standard thrash hardcore heading. However, their songs are angry, concise, and show an early intellectual wit about their lyrics, as featured on Awakenings. Seasick have quite a grip on political outrage; take a look at "Complacency Is Compliance": "Consider the effects of meager wages which crush and stifle working class consciousness by preventing people from functioning as autonomous individuals capable of satisfying their own interests as you preach the gospel of a free market." It's like Greg Graffin on speed. Their best song here is closer "Weekend," which finds the band channeling Infest a little harder at times and showing off some cool, original changeups at others -- it's pretty fun, actually.

On the flipside is Don't Wake Up, who don't exactly deviate much from Seasick here. However, their contributions are almost as solid, with a vocal front that's even more visceral. It's over in a hurry, though, that's for certain, and while there's no lyric sheet is here it's easy to assume they're pretty angry about something too.

Worth a listen for those into the style.