Review Summary: To scream in anger is to feel with passion.
The trajectory Gouge Away are heading in is a little unexpected for their hardcore leanings and punk roots, but never veering too far off the ground. On
Deep Sage the South Florida bog dwellers move one inch at a time but further still from the roaring grungy post-hardcore they have spilled on their previous records. Indeed, this should come as no surprise as for the third time in a row their sound has been undergoing a moderate update in gentleness. On paper this observation might scare off a casual fan hoping for a sharp dose of gnawing heaviness (please note that the album is still rife with such a sound), but the continuous shift is justified. No strangers to being led by emotions and fighting reflex, Gouge Away have always to a degree toyed with softness, either in sound or in themes.
Deep Sage therefore presents an understandable need to expand on the influences hitherto explored only tangentially.
Now, bear with me, because I am about to undo most everything I have written in the first paragraph and say that this album is still pathologically punk. Do not take the proclamation of softening as a sign that this is suddenly all lo-fi bedroom pop. Gouge Away are still comfortably intense rogues of the post-hardcore. However, theirs is the brand that shows care and caress amid the noise and the grit. Almost even more so than ever before, the band are engaging lyrically with punk tradition. The opener “Stuck in a Dream” follows the beloved genre staple of repetition. There is barely a stanza of substantive text, yet the cyclical chants set to the no-less cyclical instrumental manage to convince of their weight. See, if you are stuck, you are not moving an inch. Makes sense that even the lyrics would reflect that with their stubborn immobility.
Even Christina Michelle’s vocals seem almost entertained at her own crackling scream. Throughout the album’s run, as most songs culminate with their own respective hymns, Michelle purposefully sings out of tune, or out of tempo, or generally messes with expected system. It becomes an entertaining little character trait to wait and guess which way will her voice shift on a given song. If the climax of a track is the same line repeated ten times, then Christina Michelle will say it a tiny bit differently each time. Not only that, but she will also sing/scream it always in a way that will annoy vocal coaches and professional singers, ie. off and wrong. Just to *** with you.
All that taken into account, the repetition can sometimes be to the album’s detriment. “Overwatering” sure sounds like a song whose repetition could have benefited from some increase in intensity. It sure does seem to be building up to something, but the release arrives just a little short of breath, just a little off the mark. The repetition then becomes less a progression but a pacing obstacle. One that remains ahold throughout “No Release” (apt name) and is finally put to rest on the devastating “The Sharpening” (apt name x2). Here also is the perfect space to talk about the aforementioned mildness in manner lining the album. See, there are these moments of lowered tempo and energy sprinkled across the eleven tracks, often they take up entire songs like “A Welcome Change” (apt title x3), “Newtau”, and “Dallas” obtain a shoegaze, 90s indie, and grunge cloaking. Indeed, those leanings are present on many songs on
Deep Sage, but only those three make them front and central. These provide a much needed breathing room amid the otherwise manic noise, but they also signal a deliberate statement of maturity.
“Look, we can do punk and be adults about it.”
Not so true all the time. Again, “Overwatering” and “No Release” use the less abrasive non-noisy sound ineffectively, because the band’s song-writing still mulishly sits in the weeds of punk and post-hardcore. Take the title track, whose progression and increasing tension is a lot like “Overwatering”, but that song cleverly uses noisy breaks and fuzzy production to create some impactful momentum for the repetition to really hit home. The latter track simply does not have that.
Alright, alright, this is being unnecessarily negative on something that even at its lowest delivers a moving, rowdy, boisterous punk et al. ride with a plethora of obvious but nowadays seldom heard influences creatively.
Deep Sage is Gouge Away with a budget to show all their power. In that it certainly accomplishes its task. Here is a band comfortable in their sound and peaking in their comfort zone, branching out ever so carefully to new territories they now have the means and skill to accomplish. They also still stay true to the menacing roots, making for the most expansive, expensive, and exhaustive release in their discography.
