Gang's debut album 925 'TIL I DIE is an unrelenting trip

"You Did It By Accident. In My Brain" itself, despite being only a minute long, packs in enough audio violence to brazenly provoke. Each chorus, each riff and each solo is a spasmodic flare, perhaps predictable in occurrence, yet powerful enough to sustain an air of unease or unpredictability. Gang instil anxiety into the very form of their songwriting.

From start to finish, 925 ‘Til I Die is tireless and persistent to either its advantage or detriment. Like malevolent spirits, Gang hint at calm before unleashing the storm. "Time" and "Skinny Dipper" serve to break the sheer intensity of the album, yet are unflagging themselves. However, in accordance with the album’s titling, the crushing effects of wage labour come under scrutiny, most explicitly in track "Rawboned", one can’t help but feel that the oppressive and stifling atmosphere of Gang’s debut is the perfect reflection of its lyrical themes and material reality.

To reduce the trio’s debut oeuvre to nothing other than juvenile angst would be farce. Delivered with a great deal of humour, their intervallic intermission "1234" and opener "Doppelganger" pay homage to the sincere insincerity of the Butthole Surfers and ultimately indebts the LP to the movement of post-Fordist guitar bands that burgeoned out of the 80s. Eric Tormey’s utterances of “I don’t want to feel better, I want to better feel” and sardonic ruminations on the human psyche in "Messiah" are playful and irreverent enough to avoid self-indulgence.

Revolving around the anxieties and schizophrenia of the modern age, Gang are the continuation of a tradition that refuses to die. Weary and brow-beaten yet self-aware and unapologetic.