MARDOU - Cold Grasp LP

Highly recommended.

Cincinnati outfits debut is a cold and haunting post-punk album with mechanical precision and shoegaze tinged pop. It's loud and menacing but personal and fun to dance to (go ahead, try it).

This featured song rides a tight groove and an industrial beat gone haywire, moving ever forward with a rapid fire tempo. The blistering intensity is offset by Dylan McCartney's slow drifting vocals, thick reverb and the airy washes of guitar that slow ever so slightly for the verses.

There's a sleek darkness to "The Enemy," casually blurring the lines of post-punk rigidness and pop splendor to create an easily digestible if still impenetrable warble. The ominous vocals offer visuals of empty corridors, a vow of silence, and faltered values; a scene set in grainy noir culture before the song's swarming crescendo and it's repeated conclusion, "a cold grasp of the hand, emits a glow I understand".