The landscape drawn up by ’80s-influenced post-punk is usually cast in a more complex shadow than its genre predecessor, exploring melodies both dark and desperate, while nudging outside the limits of three-chord bangers. Thus brings a conundrum to the table for New York’s PAWNS, who find themselves somewhere in the center of a maelstrom of punk, post-punk, industrial and gothic notes on their new 7-inch, entitled, Eternal Return. Following last year’s wholly dark punk S/T debut, the three songs on this 7-inch never quite remain still under a definite, particular class of sound, but rather exhibit fragments of rhythm and tone from areas rooted in punk, but teeming with visions timeless in their avoidance of categorization.
Clean, yet dark basslines and thumping tom hits drive simplistic rhythmic frameworks for what would stand alone just fine as punk tracks, but the incorporation of choral and echoed guitar tones, with an affinity for high melodic swells, calls to mind something beyond. The juxtaposition of the immediacy of the instruments, especially on “Death to the Acolytes” and the title track, against the throaty patience of frontman Gage Allison’s lightly reverbed, yet bellowing vocals, calls to mind genre pushing industrial post-punk themes a la Killing Joke. Eternal Return is out now, and is being distributed by 12XU and Sacred Bones. Stream it below.
PAWNS tour dates:
August
17 – Buffalo, NY @ Sugar City w/ Basement Rats, Hot Mayonnaise
18 – Cleveland, OH @ Now That’s Class
19 – Chicago, IL @ Albion House w/ Cemetary, Hide
20 – Detroit @ The Precinct w/ Cemetery, Ishtar, Animal Man
23 – St. Louis, MO
25 – Bloomington, IN
27 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Federal Reserve w/ Heavy Medical, Disinterest
September
12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Palisades w/ Pop.1280, Wrung, Informant
