Unsane returns to ‘Sterilize’ the Earl

Gnash your teeth, flex your muscles, Chris Spencer and Co. are back with a blistering round of noise rock for now people

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Photo credit: Dan Joeright
TOTAL DESTRUCTION: Dave Curran (from left), Chris Spencer, and Vincent Signorelli are Unsane.

Press play on “Factory,” the opening number from Unsane’s 2017 album Sterilize, and that old familiar sting of Chris Spencer’s steamroller guitar melodies and distortion feel relevant now more than ever. This is infuriated music that carries the weight of all the rage, helplessness, and disgust that a thoughtful, respectable, and motivated person should feel in an era defined by the mirage of social media righteousness and Trump-era nonsense. Something has to burst this bubble, and Unsane’s distillation of industrial-grade noise and blues-inflected hardcore is a shotgun blast of primal human anger. New songs “No Reprieve,” “A Slow Reaction,” and “We’re Fucked” find bass player Dave Curran and drummer Vincent Signorelli locking into precision rhythms that, to a newcomer, might seem chaotic. But the chemistry, visceral fortitude, and internal language this group has created are absolutely impenetrable, and infinitely pleasing. Be it a classic song such as “Body Bomb” from 1993’s Total Destruction, the almighty “Scrape” from Scattered, Smothered, and Covered (circa ‘95), or “Against the Grain” from 2007’s Visqueen, the catharsis this group channels is real and palpable. Gnash your teeth, flex your muscles, and revel as the animus comes to a bloodletting point.


With Plaque Marks and NAARC. $15-$17. 8:30 p.m. Mon., Nov. 20. The Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Ave. S.E. 404-522-3950. www.badearl.com.