What first caught my eye was the excellent packaging. The cover wraps around the tape, held together by two bolts and screws that run through the bit mapped eyes of some man’s face on the cover. Opening this up, there’s a small lyric booklet in the far right panel. You have to see how they constructed the whole thing. Quite nice! Musically, this is a mix of mid tempo punk with some rock influences. In a few songs they remind me of the Pist. On the second side, the rock side of X= comes more to the front. The riff to “Pain of the Past” sounds very similar to the Rollins Band’s “Followed Around.” I really like the opener on side two, “Why Not Now,” which sounds like late ‘80s hardcore with some Motörhead influences shining through. It’s a mid tempo, moody number, but effective. Interested to hear/see where these guys go next.
–M.Avrg (X=, westpaunderground.com/x=)