Sheer, unbridled noise exuberance is the modus operandi for Mobile, AB's fearsome/fun
XBXRX, and their third, full-length album
Wars finds the group refining their sound while losing none of their visceral charm. Guitars, effects boxes, drums and larynx-ripping, screamo vocals collide in an outfreakage of distortion and adrenaline, leaving little in the way of breathing room on the album's 12 tracks. It's exhausting stuff, but not in a typical "noise rock" fashion -- think the
Boredoms with a little more allegiance to rock song structure. There's a little start/stop, math rock complexity to some of the tunes, but nothing pushing them into
Modest Mouse territory. The way
XBXRX do noise rock puts them closer to the
Pixies and
Dismemberment Plan than any
Wolf Eyes-like bombast, and that makes them unique in a genre becoming more and more crowded with meretricious posers. ~ J. Scott McClintock