"The United Sons of Toil are a collective deeply rooted in the grinding noise and math rock that bubbled up from the Midwest during the mid ’90s. This is not suggest that the Sons are a retro band in any sense, simply that the hoarse vocals, guitar damage, starts and stops, and sometimes-convoluted arrangements and time signatures hark back to a time when labels like Touch and Go, AmRep, and Dischord lorded over the indie-rock landscape.A number of other influences reared their ugly heads during the course of the first USoT record, 2007’s Hope Is Not a Strategy, notably the angular post-hardcore of outfits like Hoover and Unwound as well as the decidedly socialist bent of the sparse lyrics. Indeed, songs that compare family dynamics with political systems put the Sons squarely in the Gang-of-Four school of populist deconstruction.Within less than a year, the Sons released their second full-length on May 24, 2008. Until Lions Have Their Historians, Tales of the Hunt Shall Always Glorify the Hunter is even more unrelenting than Hope with faster, more ferocious, songs and vitriolic diatribes about the exploitation of indigenous peoples. Lions billows in scope with wiry post-punk screes giving way to more expansive compositions, eventually culminating in epic layered guitarscapes."
I basically dived into this album not knowing what to expect. Seeing random tags on last.fm such as post-punk, noise rock, post-metal, math rock, and some others, I was very confused. I'm glad that I didn't let these tags cloud my mind because I would of missed out on a hidden gem. The United States Of Toil play a very familiar math rock/noise rock that has been popular out in the mid western scene. Their lyrical content dictates a story about how social revolution can only be changed through radical means. I thought it was an ingenious idea to incorporate such into music where leftist lyrics would otherwise have been left out. What I can't seem to get enough of from this band is the fact that they incorporate a lot of post-rock and very light sludge into their music--almost similar to bands along the lines of Neurosis and Pelican but going above and beyond with a bit of post-punk thrown in. The only band I can see comparable to these guys are maybe Disappearer but even saying that is going a bit too far because TUSOT have a lot more going on. I've read up on a few reviews and they've said it's similar to a Unwound but more aggressive and I'd have to agree with that. Did I mention I fucking LOVE the intro to Swords Of Damocles? It sounds like a bunch of scratching on a guitar that you'd normally hear in an old school hip-hop song or something. I don't even know. Whatever it is, it sounds bad ass! Be sure to support this DIY band by either buying Phratryr Records, Sacred Plague Records, or directly off their bandcamp.
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