UNIFORM - Shame - LP - Limited Smoke Coloured Vinyl

Fourth full length album from Uniform, This record marks the debut of Mike Sharp on drums, adding a natural fire to the engine. His presence grinds down their metallic industrial edge with a live percussive maelstrom. Once again, Greenberg assumed production duties behind the board at Strange Weather. Building on the approach from their last LP, the band perfected the powerful hybrid of digital and analog, electronic and acoustic, synthetic and actual that has become their hallmark.

The opener Delco fuses guttural distortion to haunting chants buttressed by muscular percussion. Short for Delaware County, the track reflects on Berdan’s upbringing in a suburb west of Philadelphia and “how beatings and bullying by these local hellraisers taught (him) how to keep his guard up and navigate a violent world.” Elsewhere, the jagged thrashing of Dispatches nods to “Alan Moore’s Batman: The Killing Joke and how thin the margin between personal stability and total collapse is.” Neck-snapping riffs kick Life in Remission into high gear as a spiteful scream spirals towards oblivion.