Sunday 29 May 2016

Child Bite - "Negative Noise" (Album Review)

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 01/04/2016
Label: Housecore Records



Child Bite create an idiosyncratic racket, a chaotic collision of off-kilter punk, the weirder end of 80’s hardcore and rumbling post-punk.  “Negative Noise” is an invigorating blast of dissonance, a blend of familiar influences twisted into their warped vision.   Shawn Knight’s hyperactive drawl makes a compelling foil to the band’s manic yet inventive playing, as his Jello Biafra via Mike Watt drawl varies in intensity to match the song’s twists and turns.



“Negative Noise” track listing:

1). Death Before Dementia
2). Paralytic Phantasm
3). Euphoria Saturation Point
4). Born a Hog
5). Video Blood
6). Apex of Anxiety
7). Vermin Mentality
8). Beyond the Dirt
9). The Great Ego Flood
10). Into the Disease
11). Heretic Generation
12). Feed Me Septic Dreams

The Review:

Child Bite create an idiosyncratic racket, a chaotic collision of off-kilter punk, the weirder end of 80’s hardcore and rumbling post-punk. The Detroit quartet have shared vinyl with the illustrious likes of David Yow and Dope Body. New album “Negative Noise” shows they are more than match for these heavyweights.

The band cover a lot of ground stylistically over the course of “Negative Noise” but their identity maintains strong and coherent throughout. For every breakneck burst of damaged rock like “Death Before Dementia”, “Born A Hog” and “Vermin Mentality” there are voyages into stranger territory like “Paralytic Phantasm” and “Beyond The Dirt”. The spooked-out reverb soaked guitars of the former are taken to extremes with the huge wall of sound and a hypnotic bass line that begins the latter, seven minutes of menacing riffs and anxious vocals that make for the album’s highlight.

Video Blood” sees the band at their most angular, sharp chiming guitar lines building to keening screeching wails while the stop/start riffs of “Euphoria Saturation Point” sees them at their most restless. Strong undercurrents of noise rock bubble to the surface periodically, most noticeable during the intro of “Apex of Anxiety” which exudes the shambolic belligerence of Pissed Jeans and the churning riff that heralds the arrival of “Heretic Generation”. Shawn Knight’s hyperactive drawl makes a compelling foil to the band’s manic yet inventive playing, as his Jello Biafra via Mike Watt drawl varies in intensity to match the song’s twists and turns.

Negative Noise” is an invigorating blast of dissonance, a blend of familiar influences twisted into Child Bite’s warped vision of noisy punk rock.

Negative Noise” is available here



Band info: bandcamp || facebook