Trap Them – Blissfucker

June 10, 2014 • Prosthetic Records

Trap Them got pretty successful with their last album Darker Handcraft (which was, admittedly, pretty good) and the followup shouldn't have surprised me so much. They put together a pretty solid album, though.

This album is the same sort of blistering, raucous, metal-tinged crust punk we know them for. Lightning-paced punk rhythms, buzzsaw guitars (probably the most appropriate time I've used that word so far), the occasional foray into slow stomping sludge rhythms, the rare grindcore blast. It's got it all, and they do a good job at what they do.

The downside is that this album feels far too long. Trap Them doesn't offer much in the way of giving the listener a break, and when it comes to punk in general forty-five minutes is usually just too much. I find myself getting exhausted about halfway through, which is unfortunate because this album has a lot of good songs on it, especially near the end like "Former Lining Wide the Walls". Maybe I just ought to listen to it in two chunks or something.

But it's good. Not fantastic, but more than listenable for sure; not punk-of-the-year, but something to throw on casually now and again when I can't think of something else to listen to. I won't say if they topped Darker Handcraft, but it's still worth checking out, of course.