The Glaring is intense political punk at its finest. Each of these three tracks is dripping with unrelenting aggression. Jessie spits every word through gritted teeth and pushes her vocal chords just shy of blowing them completely out. The Glaring blur the lines between street punk, hardcore, and metal so well that it’s hard to pick out elements of them at all. Straight out of the gate, they pummel their way through breakneck tempos and sharp leads. While their drummer keeps a pretty basic beat during the verses, he unleashes absolute brutality to the choruses and breakdowns. Their songs are largely about pressures of an unjust world and grappling with how to cope with a lack of control. In the first track Jessie screams, “A system designed to take everything from me / The harder that you try the less you can achieve,” and it sadly rings true for me. Though I don’t think their overall message is apathy—more like releasing a pressure valve before an imminent explosion. The last track, “White Lie,” has some unexpected and interesting time signatures. They slow it down just a touch on this one and allow for a couple seconds of silence leading up to the chorus before sludging their way to the finish line of the record. They don’t sound anything like any bands I’ve come across lately, and I think that’s a good thing. Also the record was mastered by Kurt Bloch from The Fastbacks! –Kayla Greet (Self-released)