Casual Relapse

Raising above the fray in Dallas, TX, Casual Relapse propels forward with a metal-leaning hardcore bravura that bridges the world of bands like heavy thundering Tragedy, even a tinge of Neurosis, with modern brass tacks thrash that would be at home with Paint It Black fans. Their eyes and ears are steadily focused on the issues ripping this country apart like a tin can, including the endless divisions and differences bemoaned in songs like "Styrofoam," which addresses the misguided disinformation punching through our common sense and goals until communities feel like combat zones.

Meanwhile, "You're Not A Slave" abhors both the left and right, including the tyrants of politics that divide people until no freedom can really be achieved. With a manic tempo and guitars that snake through with uncanny power, it is a breathless assault on the status quo and state of government that does not deliver justice or empower communities. Then, catapulting tunes like "Denial" try to bust the delusional bubble of safety that wraps people in a state of ignorance as gritty cities spill their "disease, hunger, and poverty," making the contemporary world an abject failure as well as a "terrifying" and "ugly" place.

Moreover, "Blind Submission" begins with a slight jazzy intro before cruising headlong into a hardcore hurricane. It unmasks the woes and shortcomings of democracy, when thick wallets matter more than votes, and people are invisibly shackled and manacled by the system, often without being aware of their own suppression. "Illusions, fallacies, lies," the band screams, are the recipe to keep people sedate, hamstrung by tentacles of power.

And that's not the end of their anger and musically weaponized despair, for they also address military recruitment in high schools filled with blind conformity, religious rip-offs leading the way towards lame gods and horrible legislation, and rabbit holes of paranoia and conspiracy that are eating the brains of gullible people.

All of the tunes are powerful assaults on quacks, power seekers, media conquerors, mind colonizers, the politics of hate and division, and much more, which are all lyrically stacked inside their boiling speed, harrowing vocals, and careening guitar salvos.