Ask The Dead  - The Leans  (Self-released)
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Rhode Island’s own Ask the Dead return with their self-released sophomore EP, The Leans. The title track opens the EP with squelchy noise guitar barks straight out of the Fugazi play-book. But make no mistake, Ask the Dead are still a hardcore band at heart. They’ve simply found a way to showcase their artier leanings and highlight their musicianship.

“Stockholm Syndrome” indulges that musicianship with a mid-song guitar breakdown which brings to mind the synth intro to “Baba O’Reilly” as interpreted by The Edge. “All Fall Down” brings back the hardcore, sounding like something resurrected from guitarist/vocalist Alan Hague’s days with Prayers For Atheists. “Saturn Devouring His Son” closes the EP in a crunchy fashion — an arty hardcore romp bookended with mosh-worthy stomping instrumentation.

Ask the Dead keep this one short — clocking in at 13 minutes — but in that brief time they reveal themselves as a gang of hardcore punks with an itch to explore realms well beyond the institutionalized tropes of that genre.

- George Dow

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Suggested Links:

(Bandcamp) http://askthedead.bandcamp.com/