Straight Rock, No Chaser From the American Plague

The American Plague, The American Plague

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about the American Plague's new local CD release is that it impacts with all the raw-throated and hurtling fury of the band's live show—which is as highly charged and visceral as that of any band in town nowadays.

Birthed by guitarist Jaw, formerly of local roughhouse punkers the Malignmen, the Plague exhibit plenty of punk attitude, with sounds and moves snatched from the Misfits, the Clash, even metal-era solo Danzig—the latter especially in singer-guitarist Jaw's hoarsely anguished vocals. Mostly, though, their surging anthems of discontent come off as straight-rock-no-chaser, harsh and direct and stripped of any floridness or pretense. From the headlong pummel of the opener "Past the Machine" to the epic build-up-and-release catharsis of the disc-closing "The World Is Doomed" (the feel-good song, natch), the Plague's bawling intensity abates nada.

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