Eight years after singer Brendan Yates and guitarist Brady Ebert started rehearsing in a neighbour’s garage, the Baltimore quintet’s riotous live shows have made them one of the most discussed bands in hardcore. Their second album follows a major label bidding war, after which they opted to go with metal label Roadrunner. This isn’t as strange a decision as it seems, as Turnstile push at the boundaries of their own genre. Their teeth-rattling riffola certainly has its generic moments, but they incorporate everything from post-punk (the angular, grinding Can’t Get Away) to jazzy lounge music (on the misleadingly titled, 47-second-long Disco). Diplo, of all people, contributes production to Right to Be, while the furiously thrashing Big Smile surprisingly morphs into a vintage, chugging Status Quo riff.
With Yates raging away so intensely that you fear for his blood pressure, and elements of dub and echo, tracks such as Generator most resemble a hardcore Killing Joke. Turnstile haven’t always fully learned to control that intensity, though – there’s nothing as focused or melodic as the Joke’s Eighties or Love Like Blood. For all the experimentation, the Marylanders are never happier than when blasting out blistering, slam-dance-friendly Come Back for More, or hardcore/hard rocker Moon, with bassist Franz Lyons and Sheer Mag’s Tina Halladay sharing vocals. Former Lauryn Hill backing singer Tanikka Charraé turns up on Bomb’s funky hip-hop interlude, but again it’s over in seconds, and one wonders what they could have achieved by being even bolder.
