Sneak Thief – “Sneak Thief”
Sneak Thief is but one more new band/project Dan Reineman is involved with.
I was trying to keep track of the number, but my calculator blew a fuse trying to keep up, causing my central nervous system to implode resulting in several of my intestines oozing out onto the floor, requiring a quick, but necessary clean up.
I know- T.M.I.!
This band, Sneak Thief, describe themselves simply as metal, punk and hardcore. But the music is more extreme and cutting edge than that description would suggest. This music veers off into industrial, power violence and grindcore along with the cheery, warm, Xmas holiday spirits that Dan’s lyrics so often invoke.
I guess I would describe them as industrial punk as I feel their music paints a bleak, gray industrial atmosphere along with a punk/hardcore vocal attack. Basically, they combine stark, evocative music with fiercely expressive vocals.
And I would also say that they fall in with the experimental, abrasive music that I’ve always liked. Maybe starting with Pere Ubu in the seventies, Big Black in the eighties and Nine Inch Nails in the nineties along with many others.
But actions speak louder than words and sounds sound better than letters- So let’s sneak a peak and check these thieves out:
“Nightmare” starts with a simple, rock beat met with four slashing, cuts of sound before the rhythm kicks it up in a thrashing metal sort of way along with an angry, surging vocal. “Horrid stench, I hit the bottom. Pitch fucking black, no turning back.” There’s a terrific part where there’s a hit to every beat while the music snarls and howls like sirens invading the calm of a desolate late night. The vocals plead, “Wake me up, Wake me up!” But for me this song is a terrifying and real- wonderfully, engaging pleasant dream.
With drums rolls and one bending note that careens and collides before creating a bleak setting, “Where I Live,” switches to a power violence/grindcore kind of groove with the powerful, shrieking vocals blending perfectly in. “Come down here. Where I live. Take these pills. You’ll be just fine…Let us drown in self-pity and depression.” There’s a trilling guitar that hovers over the tune like a manic mosquito looking for blood. This song slows down towards the end without losing an ounce of intensity. “Come on down and stay alive.” I’d like to stay in musical surroundings, as great as this, forever.
After a loose, atmospheric beginning, “Creepy Crawl” erupts when the shouting, impassioned vocals enter. “All I have is regret. All I have is suffering. The up and the down. It’s fucking endless.” The beat is a heavy pounding like a jackhammer bearing down upon your soul. The music is ominous and foreboding, suggesting an overcast day with the rain pouring down. There’s a nice, melodic slinky, guitar interlude before we’re slammed back into the dire abrasiveness like a cold slap back to reality. “And now I choke. And now I heave. The great betrayer is inside of me.” This is one great, heavy tune that I wish was fucking endless.
“Aflame” begins with a bombarding, blurry sound along with desperate, screaming vocals blaring out. “There is no smooth sea. We’re chasing a horizon. That we will never catch. So we drift and we wane.” This is an intense, musically dense song that has a melodic, almost Asian music line moving under the obscuring sound, appearing halfway through. “So we go down in flame. Hand and hand all the way. There’s nowhere I’d rather be, sinking with you, eternally.” There’s nowhere I’d rather be than listening to songs as great as this one, my favorite tune on this release.
“To move or go on in a furtive or stealthy manner,”- the definition of sneak.
“Furtive”- attempting to avoid notice or attention.
“Stealthy”- behaving, done or made is a cautious manner.
So I guess I would say this music is presented in an unassuming manner and that the power and greatness of it sneaks up upon you much like a burglar in the night.
And this is true, but what is even truer is-
That this is uncompromising music that has artistry, truth and passion that explodes sharp and right into your ears, strong and bright into your mind and devastatingly into your heart.
Or I could just leave it at, this is another project, (one of seventy-eight at last count) that I’ve come to expect from a project that Dan Reineman is involved in.
Full of integrity, full of passion, full of pain and full of beauty.
(Slimedog)
