Stream: Sneeze - I'm Going to Kill Myself

Last night, I made my way to the Elks Lodge in Cambridge, MA where I was greeted by a welcome and familiar sound. It was that of Sneeze, one of Allston's finest up-and-comers, blasting away at gritty punk anthems. The band have a sound that could only come from those who are as well-versed in the punk scene of the 90's as they are the grunge. When writing about music, it gets exhausting constantly spewing out genres to place bands in. It seems like a new genre pops up every 10 seconds and I am guilty of muddling them together. Using genres in this manner, they start to lose their meaning. With Sneeze, I'm going to stick with one: grunge-punk. OK, I know - I rant about over-complicating genres and then I use a hyphenated one, right? Well, in this case, it is just too perfect. On the starkly titled I'm Going to Kill Myself, Sneeze find the perfect middle ground between grunge's distorted accessibility and punk's anthemic abrasiveness.

After the brooding intro, Sneeze attack this release full throttle. Frontman Derek Desharnais provides ample amounts of rumbling fuzz from his guitar and vocals that have just the right amount of snarl. Over fifteen tracks, the band takes you on high adrenaline ride with angular turns and well placed hooks that keep you reeled in. One second your head is bobbing along with the title track and before you know it, you're smacked by a scorcher like "Vaticant". If I had to give the obligatory band comparisons, I would say they sound like Lifetime on a huge Bleach-era Nirvana binge. The epitome of this is standout "Red Bullgirls" which is as catchy as it is crunchy. "Outro" is the most fleshed out and dynamic offering here despite it's generic title. It compiles all the strengths of the previous songs and stretches them out into Sneeze's most gripping track. "I'm Going to Kill Myself" may just be the feel bad album of the year. Lots of care was put into the cassette release so go grab one while you can!

Sneeze will be playing Big Putts' release show on Friday (August 24th) along with Ovlov, Speedy Ortiz, and Neur at O'Brien's Pub. That's one of the best lineups one could hope for so don't sleep on it!