We live in dark times. New York has a foreboding haze of impending decay hanging over it. We knew that the past 15 years, with low crime, an economic boom, and condos in Brooklyn (!?) was too good to be true. This past year has confirmed our suspicions. Face it, the bums will likely take over the subways, packs of wild dogs will roam our streets, and some sort of desolate, zombie filled I Am Legend version of New York City will become reality.

But there is good news; Freshkills [Myspace] have provided a pretty awesome soundtrack to these end times.

Freshkills new self-titled album is awash in darkness and with a Comac McCarthian sense of impending doom. You’re left to wonder “why bother” and “what’s the point”. By the end of this album you’re contemplating quitting your job, leaving your lover, and just hitting the road to who the hell knows where. A killing spree starts sounding like a viable option for your future. After all, what’s the point of everything? So yeah, this is a pretty awesome album.

Freshkills, Brooklyn based and named after the infamous Staten Island landfill, are a five piece, lead by vocalist Zach Lipez. Lipez’s frantic yet apathetically detached depression lords over the band’s live show and strongly brings to mind The Sound’s Adrian Borland.

There are only two places a post-hardcore, post-punk, post-civilization band like this could exist: New York City or Manchester. Album standouts include the Mission of Burma-esque “I Know I Know”, Joy Division-but-a-lot-more-kickass “Enemies”, and “I Quit Smoking”, which would have fit nicely on The Sound’s Jeopardy.

While Freshkills are not as overtly dark and posses a much fuller sound than a Joy Division, the downward spiraling despair present the later absolutely exists in the former. Some bands or albums can only end in murder or death. The only logical conclusion of Closer was death. It completed the album and it completed the band. Was it any surprise Adrian Borland threw himself in front of a train? Freshkills leaves you feeling the same. Maybe somebody in the band will go and off themselves. Maybe the album will serve as a “Helter-Skelter” to some future psycho. Maybe that person will be you.

“I Know I Know” [mp3]

Last 5 posts by Tom Williams

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