Barnburner

VINYL FORMAT. 180 gram vinyl. Full color poster-sized insert. Rising out of the cacophony come Hawks, Atlanta's newest and most distrubing rock quartet. Their debut Barnburner, showcases ten tracks of booze fueled noise that has been described as a "sleazy orchestra" of "ungodly racket." Empty bottles clanging, spare change rattling, antique brass bellowing from beneath the clamor - all of this swirling together into an amalgam of tonal chaos. Guitarist Andrew Wiggins screeches and whirs against the primal and destructive cannonade provided by the rhythm section composed of bass player Sean Fitzgerald and drummer Shane Patrick. Among this pandemonium, vocalist Michael Keenan howls like a feral child, if that child were to have the capacity for speech. And yet, these songs have an infectious quality about them. They wriggle their way into the listener's mind and set up residence like a clew of earworms.

These are hymns of sex and violence, of death and transformation, of public humiliation and private perversion. Barnburner is a dirty and unseemly snapshot of a damaged and seedy group of individuals. Too imperfect to exist on their own, Hawks have stumbled upon a strange sort of synergy - together. This, their first full length record, showcases the band's ability to document their own self-destructive tendencies, and in doing so, present something of horrific beauty.