Snapcase
Progression Through Unlearning

THE REVIEW

Hailing from the third most active, or at least most interesting, pole of American Hardcore, namely Chicago, Snapcase also represent a new frontier, perhaps the only one in recent years, for Punk-Hardcore. They represent it first and foremost from a lyrical and "philosophical" point of view: having moved past the social interests of the undisputed masters Fugazi, Snapcase, Straight Edge to the core, achieve an almost ascetic intent in their music; they do so by speaking a language that, with almost religious terms, speaks of soul salvation, sacrifice, frustration of desires, inner knowledge, self-respect before that of others, total abstinence as per the Straight Edge ethic, from alcohol and drugs; this being the only remedy, according to them, to save oneself from a society, the Western one, increasingly lost in "false" values or in the absence of them.

And it is the music that, as the soundtrack of a society in disarray, and an "invitation" to soul salvation, proves to be, alongside the lyrics, equally innovative: before being sonic violence, it appears indeed disturbing, claustrophobic, edgy, anguishing, the perfect musical base for a hypothetical horror or disaster film.
In practical terms, a shouted voice, surrounded by acidic, noisy, and psychedelic guitars, a dry thunderous and fast drum, a macabre, frenetic and schizophrenic track, violent yet capable of alternating more intimate moments, and yet even more veiled and dense.

"Progression Through Unlearning" is not their most innovative work, but perhaps it is the most complete and does not yet suffer from the "mannerism" that will present itself in subsequent albums.
Not everyone's taste, but certainly an interesting backdrop to the end of the old/beginning of the new millennium, at least for those who believe this is not precisely the best possible world.