METZ / Adulkt Life

This split 7” is a dogged, startling response to today’s spoilt life. Adulkt Life and METZ are paired perfectly: their shared, resolute force carries an urgency that belongs to this era alone. Both are capable of goading listeners, both are capable of unearthly moments of alloyed beauty. And both bands are made for that unflinching space between the truths that can’t be absorbed and the truths that can’t be forgotten. METZ are undisputable. Their warning, an unflinching assessment of the vastness and insignificance of this life, is precisely counterbalanced by their lesson, which models the resilience that this understanding demands. “Demolition Row” is persistent, concise, and alarmingly physical. But its punch is escorted by this hypnotizing, un-strained vocal. “It’s quite singular,” in the words of METZ’s guitarist/singer Alex Edkins, “we’ve never sounded this way before.” Adulkt Life’s debut LP, Book of Curses, was the highlight of 2020, a contorted, forceful declaration. Adulkt Li