When Summer’s Gone certainly sound like they come from their home of Pittsburgh, PA. Noises from factories and industrial playgrounds just seem to emanate from their music, as if subconsciously they’ve emulated the sounds and atmosphere of their home without even knowing it. The band has recently released their new full-length album, Knockout Mechanism, their first since 2009’s December, and have both carried on and expanded their sound since. The band combines a hard rock grit with a poeticism reminiscent of someone like Bruce Springsteen and a certain cynicism that can only come from being raised in the rust of an old steel town.
For the most part, the band brings the sludge, grunge, and metal throughout the album, particularly strong on songs like “All Out War” and “Like Ghosts”, but elsewhere the band sounds more tired and defeated on songs such as “Threadbare” as if the location they grew up in is finally taking a toll on them and they’ve resigned themselves to their fate. But they’re not giving up without a fight. On “We All Fall Down” the band brings the fuzz hard and loud, as if they’re well aware it’s a fruitless rebellion but they’ve got nothing else better to do anyway, so why not?
One of the greatest moments here is the album closer “Reborn”. It’s quiet yet menacing, sounding somewhat like Soundgarden. It leaves the album to quietly burn out with the haunting final line, “There’s something we still feel.” The album is left on a cliffhanger as if the band themselves know their future and the future of everyone else around them is up in the air. Knockout Mechanism is melodic, heavy and loud, but most of all, some seriously gripping stuff.
