Incommunicado – Losing Daylight

For starters:
Four bands immediately come to mind, and the fact that Incommunicado has managed to combine elements of each while fully carving out a sound entirely their own is something to be lauded. Bands includeRefused, Grade, Anti-Flag, and Bouncing Souls. Chew on that for a while.

Or, how’s this:
Man, one hell of a solid debut from a band I’d never even heard of before, and the best thing is that Losing Daylight comes across as a record both seemingly familiar and inherently creative and fresh-sounding.

Taking heavy nods from the precision and instrumental interplay of a band like Refused (as well as an occasional similarity to Refused singer Denis Lyxzen’s vocals) combined with the forthrightness and bright edges of Bouncing Souls and Anti-Flag, and it’s clear that Incommunicado’s using some totally disparate elements to create something pretty captivating here. I mean, shit, any band that can sonically merge what made “New Noise” and “The Ballad of Johnny X” such great songs, and then cross-connect it with their own style to come up with something like what I’m hearing in “Faces To The Floor” or “Salt’ll Break Your Teeth?” A band that can do that gets a thumbs-up from me.

There are a few moments – the rolling drumfills and lightly strummed guitars at the beginning of the song “Ratings”, for example – where the Anti-Flag, Grade and Bouncing Souls similarities are pretty glaring, but they manage to couple it with such a wide, sure-footed range of melodies and diverse instrumental interactions that the comparisons never get to the point where they become overwhelming. Meanwhile, Losing Daylight is a challenging album taken as a whole – relentlessly catchy while never letting up and never losing that sense of cold clinicality that I’ve always associated with Refused.

Twelve songs and there’s not one in the bunch that didn’t have me riveted at some point. Couple that with the fact that the lyrics are pointed, whip-smart and inherently political and it becomes obvious in short order that this is a band that’s definitely onto something. They’ve managed to bring something to the table for fans of political punk and “modern” punk enthusiasts.

Or, simply: shit’s good. Check it out.