The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis

The Messthetics again collide with the tectonic force of Brandon Lewis for a new album and, like the last time, the collaboration brings out the best of both. This time around there’s more itch, more grit in the maw to make the pearl. There’ve been a few global changes since the artists last lit the tapes in 2024, so it’s only natural that some of the cultural weight of the world would make its way onto the spools this time around. Still locked in groove, still symbiotic down to the marrow, but this time the bile boils a bit hotter. There’s turbulence and turmoil in Deface The Currency, a seethe that might have been sated before. Here, it remains raw underneath the band’s boisterous back and forth.

On their own, The Messthetics excel in turning riff into rankle, but it takes Lewis’ sear to really set the band’s works alight. As the trio beneath him signals unease, a sense of inability to temper acceptance of systems and societies that have become increasingly devoid of care for their citizens, it’s Lewis’ discordant call that lobs the brick against the bluster. He’s the bullhorn and the battering ram, though Lewis’ playing is much more nuanced than either, threading through the tangles of guitar and Canty’s punishing pound with deft skill. Given the band’s history, there’s little surprise at the undercurrent of invective that’s slipped into the new record, but the band pulls off the slip from slink to scorch with an effortless ease.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.