The cut begins in a shattering drum beat, left on its own for longer than you’d think, gathering speed and tumultuousness as it goes on and met finally with a surprising sweet, blisteringly loud wall of guitar. As always for this Texas hardcore trio, shout-sung vocals intersect and contradict each other, a crossfire of urgent, untutored melody and meaning. And yet by the chorus, all three members of Xetas — Dave Petro, the guitarist, Kana Harris, the bass player and Jay Dilick, the Drummer — have joined in a really sweeping, memorable rock ‘n roll hook. “The Mariner” may well be this hardcore punk trio’s very first cigarette-lighter anthem, their frantic energy laser focused and weirdly almost pop.
…There is plenty of pummel and turmoil and fast-slash aggression in The Cypher.
But in “The Mariner” and, to a lesser extent, “The Bystander,” that tunefulness is center forward. You could put these songs on the radio, if there still was a radio. You could share them with your non-punk friends.
That doesn’t imply any sort of softening or dilution, by the way. “Bystander,” in particular, flares and flails with blowtorch energy, laying waste to the guitar squalling, drum battering spaces between sing-along choruses. “The Doctor,” begins in a Molotov cocktail of distorted guitar, first buzzing with smoke and feedback, then catching in full flame. The thump, thump, thump of kick drum, the clanking menace of bass push the beat from behind, fast and relentless. An ominous chant — “I’m running out of patience” — ratchets up the tension; with each repetition, the words get sharper, harder-edged, more threatening. “The Hierophant” (possibly a holdover from the Tarot album) blares rumbling bass driven roar like Burma or Shellac, spiked and heavy. “The Xero” jacks speed and noise and battling shouts to warp speed like a mixed gender Minor Threat. In sum, the loud, distorted, cathartic parts of Xetas are as body-churning as ever, and if you love punk rock, you’re going to want The Cypher. It’s just that now they’ve also written a couple of hits.