Strangers

The new-ish 7" from Strangers, New Zealand's most visible hardcore act (Stateside, anyway) offer another half-dozen of throbbing, pulsing and slightly technical tracks.

The stuff on Night Minutes here is slightly more melodic (thanks to a more understandable, agitated vocal delivery) but certainly not any brighter than their past material, which includes their Holding demo and Weight full-length from 2007. There's a frantic bass-y foundation that sounds kinda Coalesce-esque and a generally mean and slight, Cursed-ish D-beat flair to the songs' forward charge. Mid-EP cut "Knots" stands out thanks to its rugged stop-starts and spastic aggression, but the mechanical, grating intro to the followup instrumental "Your Children Are Bored" is pleasantly rough too.

This is probably the band's best material to date, and recommended if you want to check out some interesting hardcore.

STREAM
Suck & Burn
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