CELL PRESS
CELL PRESS “Cages”
By Dr. Abner Mality
“Adult Baptisms” comes in swinging like a drunk looking for a fight. A lot of swagger and heft, not a lot of elegance. That might be a decent way to describe CELL PRESS on the whole. Then the weirdly titled “Kissed By a Morose on Mont Royal” is more angular than a 12 sided die, choppy and piston like. Vocalist PQ is pissed off like a bear with a thorn in his paw and roars away throughout the album. That gives the band a heavier feel than the more “alternative” side of the noise rock fence.
Is it sludgy noise or noisy sludge? As if that matters. CELL PRESS is rough and tough enough to grab the metal fans, strange and “alternative” enough to grab noise rockers. The focus is on the riff and there are good ones to be heard here. Only “Blue Royal” devolves into a total tuneless racket and I’m sure that was not a mistake. Elsewhere, your head will get knocked in by the thick burly riffs of “JOI to the World”, the best track on the album. HELMET fans should dig “Original Uranium Baby” and “Dark Side of the North” has a really darkened crunch that makes it ostensibly the heaviest track on the album. “Things They Do In France” is slightly more accessible and tuneful in a TORCHE kind of way.
These guys promised good things on their debut EP and “Cages” sees them following through in workmanlike style. A band that fans of EYEHATEGOD and CHERUBS both can appreciate.