Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)

★★☆☆ This is another brickwalled slab of noise, short-ish and intense as you’d expect from Enabler. You’ve got a handful of standout tracks that feel like fresh territory, and you’ve got a number of tracks here that feel painfully and regrettably rote by now.

All of that said, I actually listened to this album twice. Toward the end of my first listen, in preparation for writing this review, I finally learned of the fate of the band, of the breakup between bandleader and bassist, of the assertions and denials of physical abuse in their relationship, of the rest of the band quitting en masse this past summer… and chose to re-listen. With that greater context fresh in my mind, I can hear a new dimension to the psychological turmoil of the sole bandleader, left alone with no band but with an impetus to keep going on his own. His choice strikes me less as a statement of bravery than as a concession to compulsion.

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