The Hex Dispensers

III (Alien Snatch! Records)

The most funereal album of 2015 comes crafted by a band walking a tightrope over the chasm connecting the Wipers and the Misfits since 2007. Ten tracks bristle with propulsive energy, grimy guitars, and enough melody and hooks to fuel an AM radio afternoon in 1965. Yet the mood is so drenched in dread it will send a depressive straight to his or her therapist in minutes flat. Much like Roky Erickson post-Rusk State mental hospital, Alex Cuervo’s local quartet clearly equate the blue glow of black & white midnight TV creature screenings with whatever sick noise courses through their heads. “There must be a parallel/ Who stayed and lived to tell the tale,” intones “Parallel,” the first track. “Another me whose mother cried/ Another me who lied.” Or, as the anthemic “Personality X-Ray” shouts, “That person is a time bomb/ That person is a nightmare factory.” Hex Dispensers have clearly sussed out that the modern world is far more hellish than anything Dario Argento could lens.

***.5

This article appears in July 24 • 2015.

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Tim Stegall contributed to The Austin Chronicle 1991-1995, and was a staff writer 1995-1997. He returned as a contributor in 2013. He has also freelanced for publications ranging from Flipside to Alternative Press to Guitar World. He plays punk rock guitar and sings in the Hormones.