LICE

Wasteland: What Ails Our People Is Clear

There’s a Royal Trux-esque chaos to the album, always teetering close to the edge, that creates a nerve-recking feeling of unpredictability.

A collection of biting, esoteric hymns that readily combine the earthly and the cosmic.

It’s a mad, intoxicated voyage powered by unending, unnerving energy; it’s deranged in the most beautiful way. If punk is a loud, bolshy break from the norm, this is punk.

There’s enough going on across the 43-minute running time of WASTELAND that the listener shouldn’t go into it expecting to have grasped the whole thing on the first pass; perseverance is greatly rewarded.

This album demonstrates that they have learned valuable lessons from their impressive predecessors.

It isn’t necessarily an easy listen. Sections are abrasive and even Avant-Garde, with shades of Black Midi, but underneath it all, you can feel the element of a quest, a purpose, and a journey, for themselves as much as humanity.

'Wasteland' has all the disturbing atmosphere of a David Lynch film, appealing to a morbid curiosity in us that longs to sample the grottiest, grimiest sounds that music has to offer while still being undeniably impressive.