As extremity splinters into so many subgenres even Bruce Springsteen can rattle off two dozen, hardcore punk maintains the middle – feeds the everyman. And that dude is pissed. So steams Austin trio the Bearer, three EPs in since 2016 and fully unbound on full-length bow Chained to a Tree. Lyrically enlightened, compositionally uncluttered, primitively aggro, the LP represents via cleverly bookish video “Jagged Lines,” which Decibel magazine pinpointed as a “portal” to 1998, citing Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge: “The Bearer were born from that (Molotov) cocktail of rabid hardcore with a metallic edge.” Less metal than their debut nor as brawny as follow-up Fiction, this obvious evolve from Adapt | Adjust grounds axe-wielder Michael Delaney, bassist Jeffrey Blum, and drummer/vocalist Colton Siegmund best. The latter’s piquant cry on opener “Pushed Back In” builds to LP midpoint “Sympathy Pains” – wrenching, bleeding, torn – while “Jury of Oppressors” unleashes pure band fission and the excoriating catharsis of the title cut tightens its titular restraint until you split in half.

****

This article appears in Best of Austin: Restaurants 2022.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.