before the blackout? try again, allister

The Blackout Pact
"Hello Sailor"
(Astromagnetics)

There must be something in the water out there in Colorado because lately they've been spitting out these awesome bands like crazy: Fear Before the March of Flames, Love Me Destroyer, and now The Blackout Pact.

With a band that just looks so damn dirty it's easy to throw around buzz words like "edgy," "raw," and "ferocity" but they capture this energy that you don't really find in punk bands these days.

When you hear a _______ (insert Drive Thru/Victory/Vagrant/whatever shitty label is hot right now) band, it's usually polished and radio ready. Parents will allow their children to consume something that is without threat to the moral confines that they are raising their kids in. Even a band like My Chemical Romance recognizes that they are more pop than dangerous, as if you couldn't tell by just looking at them.

The Blackout Pact, however, is the real deal Holyfield. Combining the drunken swagger of the Murder City Devils and rocking aesthetic of Hot Water Music, the band's 10 tracks on their debut "Hello Sailor" (Astromagnetics), hits you like an Amtrak train of doom.

Songs like the listener-friendly "You Punch Me, I Punch You," the amusing "If You Dress Up Like Halloween, Ghouls Will Try And Get In Your Pants," and "We Drink So You Don't Have To," soak in a gumbo of major chords, gang vocals, and catchy melodies.

There are a ton of hardcore kids right now who are doing their part in reliving 1995 by forming these revitalist Lifetime/Kid Dynamite/Dan Yemin bands, but many of them barely succeed, if at all. The Blackout Pact easily takes that brand of music and does shots with it, until it's a sound of their own.

It's interesting to see a band capture a sound that isn't really associated with their city (they should probably have New Jersey to thank). Now I wish someone can get me some of that damn Denver tap water.