Stepping back from the sprawling multifaceted concept album
Wohaw to a much more concise recapitulation of
the USA Is a Monster's early sound,
Sunset at the End of the Industrial Age takes this New York duo perhaps a bit too far back to its no wave roots. Aside from the 13-minute epic title track and the eight-minute freakout closer, "The Spirit of Revenge," the songs are relatively short bursts of guitar-drum cacophony, several under two minutes. As always, multi-instrumentalists Colin Matthews (mostly guitars) and Tom Hohmann (mostly drums) scratch and bash at their oddly tuned instruments in a fashion that's probably not as utterly random as it seems, while the pair take turns yelping in the manner of early
Arto Lindsay or
Big Black-era Steve Albini. However, after the comparatively expansive and partially acoustic
Wohaw,
Sunset at the End of the Industrial Age sounds like a retread of previously explored noise rock terrain. ~ Stewart Mason