by Hugo Reyes (@hvreyes5)
Exhalants make music that’s meant to be blasted in small rooms, where the water drips from the ceiling and the hinges on the door are held together by mounds of duct tape. It's ugly and gnarled, sitting right at home in the long history of weirdo punk to come out of Austin since the 80’s. This has been the case for several years, as heard on their self titled debut and split with Pinko. Then comes the task of the second record. Where to next? Do you expand, reiterate, or try to recreate?
Atonement isn’t necessarily any of those imagined outcomes. It is the unexpected follow up — the one that you didn’t necessarily see coming but are glad it exists. There is a “leveling up” as I like to call it. The marriage of recording to a live band is finally in equilibrium. It's pretty clear in the opening run of “The Thorn In Yr Side,” “Bang,” and “Passing Perceptions” that this record is something special. They sound unhinged for lack of a better word by the end of “Passing Perceptions”. The song feels like it's going to fall apart as singer Steve Pike screams “I will not feel this shame.”
It’s the passages that follow these sections of intense, noise rock cacophony that may leave your mouth agape. I know it's a cliche in all kinds of heavy music to have these sections that essentially just work as interludes, but these tropes exist for a reason. It provides some kind of room for expansion, and allows for those moments when all three members converge feel a little more special. “Definitions” sounds like a midwest emo song from the 90’s, slowly pacing towards a climactic finish. Then there’s the closing track “Lake Song,” a nine and a half minute slow build, with crests and waves, accentuated by a trumpet and a cello.
These moves would be eye roll inducing in much less adept hands. The thought of that long of a closing track for a 41 minute album seems like a red flag. Somehow, it works when Exhalants does it. Atonement is a marvel in that way, marking Exhalants as the best noise rock band going, and makes one excited for where they go next.