Exclusive Album Premiere: Rhin, Passenger
Noise rock has long been the anthem of spitfire young men who are pissed off, sexually frustrated and ready to tear shit up. Starting in the ’80s with acts like Big Black (featuring elder statesman of the genre Steve Albini), The Jesus Lizard, and Melvins, noise stripped down the over-studded corpse of commercial punk rock, tacked on loads of distorted indignation, and gave rise to what would eventually redesign the landscape of mainstream rock music in the decade to come: grunge.
This evolution obviously brought us legends like Nirvana and their countless knockoff acts, but just a bit lower on MTV’s radar were bands like Helmet and Unsane, who continued on long after Cobain offed himself and took with him the wider interest in the genre. With everything ’90s back in fashionable favor over the last few years, it’s no surprise a promising crop of young bands would rediscover and utilize the styles popularized in that era.
One such band doing an excellent job of putting their own spin on said ’90s revivalism is West Virginia trio Rhin. Hot on the heels of March’s split with math-influenced punk trio Rat Ship, Cowboys from Heck, Rhin’s second full length Passenger is a raucous good time with plenty of danceable aggression and enough fuzz to carpet every dirt floor left in Appalachia. The album opens with one of the most infectious bass riffs I’ve heard in the past year, then 8 seconds in takes an explosively energetic turn for the dissonant. The album maintains pace until “Snivlem” slows things down, sounding a bit like a more post-hardcore version of Whores, before ratcheting up the chaos again with “Basement.” The first half of closing track “Bad Timing” feels a bit inspired by Sublime-style reggae rock but without the douche-chills you get from that hippie you knew in high school who still wears a drug rug and covers “Santeria” on an acoustic guitar at college keggers even though he’s 32. It ends strong and straightforward, and comes off triumphant in progress and growth.
Passenger is set for release on May 6th via a personal favorite of mine, Maryland-based Grimoire Records. Noel Mueller — owner/sound engineer/all-around wizard of Grimoire — is one of the hardest working guys in the music industry, and a listen through the label’s catalog exemplifies that. You can pre-order physical copies on vinyl, CD, or cassette here, and stream the album in full below.
