The first thing you'll notice upon listening to the second album from Portland, OR's
Diesto is, unfortunately, the fact that it sounds like it was recorded on the bass player's kid brother's boombox in their basement. The band sounds simultaneously overdistorted and muffled, an effect that would have been difficult to achieve on purpose but was probably unintentional. As you strain to listen through the sonic murk, though, you'll be impressed by what you hear: rhythmic changeups that are put to a musical purpose, not just to give the drummer a chance to put those
Neil Peart instruction tapes to good use; songs that combine the headlong velocity of hardcore with the whip-smart precision of math rock (check out "Sagittarious" in particular), and the occasional descent into sludgy neo-metal ("Pressure"). The album's finest track comes right in the middle: "Piece of Hell" is noisy, dark, and heavy, but light on its feet at the same time -- imagine middle-period
Hüsker Dü with an even worse producer than Spot, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what
Diesto sound like at their best. The sound quality really is inexcusable, though, and at just over 31 minutes this album is just a little bit short to be sold as a full-length. ~ Rick Anderson