Chi-Town's Heavy Seas captured a loud, beer-fueled, 2am punk show in a bottle with Everything Breaks.
The trio, lead by first-time front man Jeff Dean of Airstream Futures, smashes open with a slow and pounding title-track. The ambient leads muscle into "Waves and Dreams," showcasing a quick and expert intro from drummer (and Dean's bandmate in All Eyes West,) Ronnie DiCola. "Oscillation" immediately nods the tempo back a hair, offering a wide-open canvass for vocal choruses. "Fade Away" nestles the ambience and angst to the forefront of the sonic wall for a nice change of pace, which naturally enters a slow build to a satisfactory outro.
"Caved In" brings the heavy grunge back, presenting perhaps the most hook-quality lyrics and melody thus far, and is a very enjoyable moment of the record, most notably some pitted dissonant note placement on the bridge from bassist (and Airstream Futures bandmate) Katie Karpowicz. "Unwound" slams open the second half, with additional vocal hooks and giant guitar from Dean, jarring the passenger seat for the total bummer (and my personal favorite of the ten) "In Flux." Dean's timbre and delivery are at their very best and most identifiable here, and the angsty pep and punk drumming from DiCola bring you immediately out of his funk and back to the next number of the joyride that is Everything Breaks.
"Monuments" fires up with a needed rock intro energy that hasn't yet graced the record, and with rad accompanying up-down choruses to complete the concept. The three-piece proceeds to smash a bridge/outro heavy enough that you can smell the mildewed walls of a Chicago punk club if you close your eyes. "With The Days" dredges two riffs and choral leads into the (now) defined Heavy Seas sound before crushing the thirty-two minute full-length to completion.
As with some Sell The Heart roster Decent Criminal and Neckscars, there seems to be a common tinge of alternative rock influence sewn between the chord progressions and methodology, and with Heavy Seas' realm dipping somewhere between Superdrag, early Nada Surf, or (good) Thursday. The result is grating leads that fill in the holes between the slow tempos and long winded pronunciations, all while enticing the listener with banger after banger. This is a killer LP I would recommend, and also assume that the ten songs will sound even greater on stage, let's grab a pint and one of those stupid fucking Malört things and find out.