Pick Your Side
Snakes & Ladders
Tracklisting:
1. Thru Veins
2. Bleeding Out
3. This is Not a Test
4. Throne of Privilege
5. But Wait!!
6. Don’t Cry (Neil Young cover)
7. Snakes and Ladders
When Pick Your Side started putting out music last year, I
was simply relieved that something violent, angry and Haymaker-esque was coming
out of Hamilton again. Beyond that, I
honestly didn’t expect much, let alone steady output and even semi-regular gigs
to attend. Fortunately, the boys in PYS
seem to have some momentum behind them because they are back with their second
7”, and from what I understand, will be recording a 2nd LP for A389
in the not-too-distant future.
This offering, Snakes and Ladders, picks up where Survival
Prayer and Let Me Show You How Democracy Works left off. The first four tracks offer up the same
vitriolic, thrashy hardcore that they have become known for, and don’t away
from subject matter ranging from betrayal (“Picture your life as a knife fight
and you just got stabbed in the guts”) to middle class privilege (“...point
blame in protest in the words you sing your bullshit songs, won’t change a
thing.”).
The next couple tracks, “But Wait!!” and “Don’t Cry” reveal
the metal/sludge roots that this band also has.
“But Wait!!” is a nice mix of hardcore and metal, which just adds a
dynamic element to the record that is welcomed, but “Don’t Cry” might take a
little for some PYS fans to get used to.
Why, you ask? Because it’s a
droning, sludgy Neil Young cover that clocks in at over 7 minutes. Yup, you heard me right. I really enjoyed it from the 2nd
listen onwards (I was a bit too thrown off by it at first), and love that this
band truly doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks of them or what they should
be doing.
You can’t buy it yet (unless you go to one of their shows on
their European tour or at Not Dead Yet Fest in Toronto), but you can listen to
it here.
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