The Energy's First Album along with an internationally acclaimed LP from the Secret Prostitutes and No Talk's definitive swan song, has thoroughly exposed the dominion that these four hold over the punk scene in Houston. Among all the disparate projects in which they've had a hand, the Energy- with Wolf on drums, Triplett on guitar and Ryan on bass- has the firmest grip on the imagination of its audience. With its distended and inexorable yet fleet and thoroughly gripping songs, and vocalist Arthur Bates's casual portrayal of twisted, terroristic fantasies, The Energy's "First Album" simultaneously mocks and celebrates murder with chilling flair. It brooks comparison to Black Flag's "Damaged" in its ability to hold complicit, to judge and condemn, those listeners sick enough to get
the joke- and make us thank them for it.
Now, hardly giving us time to enjoy our freedom, the Energy have doubled our sentence. Harder and faster than its predecessor, Get Split revisits the violence of Triplett's razor-sharp and unrelenting guitar while doubling down on irony and alienation. The psycopath that Bates portrayed on the "First Album" crumbles here, talking in the loathsome half-nonsense of a junkie, while projecting the unpredictability and reptilian menace of someone whose higher brain is ruined mush. Get Split is an irresistible act of destruction and hatred, against its predecessor, itself, its audience and the world. It's a pleasure to be a victim. |
