Abandoncy: Assailable//Agonism

Kansas City, MO three-piece, Abandoncy, aren’t ones to sit on their hands.

Since their inception in 2019, the three-piece (Damian Fisher – vocals/guitar; Lincoln Peterson – bass/ vocals; and Morgan Reed Greenwood – drums), have explored new corners of the noise-rock sound world during what is now a three-album reign with their latest long-player, Assailable//Agonism.

Following the lineage of their first two albums, Hollow//Living (2020) and Pastel//Anguish (2022), while many newcomers in the noise-rock parish have used the markers set down by touchstones, Unwound and Slint, Abandoncy take it back a little further on Assailable//Agonism, finding solace in the more countrified sounds of Flipper and Minutemen. The results see Abandoncy unveil their best songs yet in what feels like a tour through a haunted house on acid.

Opening cut, Heat Dump, starts out like a homage to their native Missouri. As the sounds of AM radio lull listeners into a false sense of security, things take a hairpin turn as a hybrid of math-rock infused post-hardcore oozes from the speakers like remnants from the slaughter floor.

Scarlet Rot and God’s_Pee (the latter a nod to the post-rock veteran’s 2021 LP) are filled with Peterson’s razor-wire bass lines, and alongside Fisher’s speed-induced plinking, these are snapshots fraught with tension. Think early doors Kal Marks with the cannoning force of Don Caballero. Morgan’s work from behind the kit, thunderous and dynamic in what is ultimately Abandoncy’s secret weapon.

Battle-Axe continues the roller coaster descent through the above-noted haunted house; this time pulling from the mind-bending absurdity of early Polvo channelled with countrified echoes. Once again, it sees Abandoncy finding the best results from contrast. noise-rock for your nightmares

Featuring Buñuel and ex-Oxbow leader Eugene S. Robinson, Night Drive is noise-rock for your nightmares. Howling walls of sounds that are likened to a war zone. Fisher and Robinson, trading barbs in what is a concoction of fury and anxiety that equates to a rolling hell.

Six songs clocking in at under 19 minutes, Night Drive is an emphatic end to Assailable//Agonism. An album that sees a band continuing to explore the incongruous and the extremes. And by doing so they deliver their best album yet, finding the sweet spot between the abstract and the direct. It’s these juxtapositions where Abandoncy thrive and will continue to do so in the future.

Assailable//Agonism is out now via The Ghost Is Clear Records, Learning Curve Records, and Vina Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.