If you’ve been feeling like a lot of hardcore bands sound the same, Index is here to save the day.
Alan Creedon and Alex Lichtenauer, formerly bandmates in the Philly punk band Control Top, have formed a new project called Index and released their first album titled Vis Inertiae. Creedon, still living in Philly, wrote some songs (and recorded vocals and guitars) and sent them to Lichtenauer, who now lives in LA. He added both electronic and conventional drums to the tracks. Lichtenauer also runs the label (Get Better Records) that the album was released on. Production is from Arthur Rizk, who has worked with Show Me The Body and Power Trip.
A good thesis statement for this album comes from the first single and opening track, “Cellophane”: “Nothing’s real but nothing fades / Caught between the old charades / I erased the last of me / In the endless atrophy”. This song feels like an appropriately noisy and pounding expression of anger at the desensitization, apathy, and loss of identity/personhood that’s so easy to embrace right now. With the “flooding the zone” chaos that we experience trying to stay informed (doom scrolling), it’s daunting and excruciating to try to care about anything in the present day. The first song of any album I love always grabs my attention in a big way, and this one does that very well. (Thanks for the recommendation, Todd.)
The title of the album seems to be taken from a Nietzsche quote commenting on the human need to actively suppress and forget things that overwhelm us. This extends into the message of the next track with the repetition of “fractured noise!” in a similarly physical track.
“Glass Horizon”’s heavy, fuzzed-out (even sludgy) thuds keep the momentum chugging forward. The moody and dreary interludes, among other elements, in several songs may remind some of nu-metal (in a good way), but the rumbling electronics and Lichtenauer’s impressive beats give Index their own unique sound.
For all my Gizzheads out there, “Endless” sounds like it could’ve been on King Gizzard’s Polygondwanaland, but lyrically maintains a similar message as the first few tracks with lines like “swallowing the medicine / shapes unravel, twist, and bend / sentences I can’t defend”.
Creedon alternates between Peter Murphy-esque low droning vocals and high-energy, higher-register hardcore singing on the track “Earth” and throughout the album.
“Paper Limbs” jumps back into a fuzzy, driving punk rhythm, sounding almost like a Gøggs or Ex-Cult song. “Static Bloom” features buzzing metal riffs from Creedon and thumping toms from Lichtenauer, and even evolves into an almost emo / pop punk anthem at one point. The album ends on a contemplative note with the haunting acoustic track “Beneath the Fold”. There really isn’t a predictable, dull, or uninteresting moment on this record.
Hardcore? Industrial? Nu Metal? Who cares?! This is a great batch of creative and dynamic songs that pack a punch.
Vis Inertiae is out now via Get Better Records.