Sending messages to the audience instead of the police or press, SPY is the rambunctious killers of sound that together collide on HABITUAL OFFENDER to be brutal and act without mercy.
Opening HABITUAL OFFENDER with “AFRAID OF EVERYTHING,” SPY acts paranoid but not to be afraid of anyone but themselves. The rough guitar feedback leads the audience into a house of mirrors, confusing and soon to be their final demise. The last images strike into the brain with lyrics that illustrate, “Enraged by what you see, this world is not for you. I hate that I can see it inside myself too.”
To be a continuous force of nature takes much of the aggression and exertion on HABITUAL OFFENDER to be a 10 minute set over six tracks. The fear of civilizations toppling over follows onto “OBTAINED UNDER DURESS” where SPY pulls the audience further with an undertow of circle pit whirlpools.
The riptide of bodies disguised as countless waves is nearly impossible to distinguish as the crowd attacks together like a disjointed tidal wave. When the sluggish nature of “EXCEPTIONAL AMERICAN” enters the frame, classic two-stepping nature images blast into the mind. Stomping like the ground is littered with roaches or skulls of enemies, the kicks come up and begin to create distress within the ears.
The lyrics shouted over percussive onslaughts describes, “What a model citizen, such a good American. Wants to kill and die for this fraudulent republic.” A small tempo breakdown leads into the final rephrase where vocals declare, “What a model citizen, such a good American. Full of blind and thoughtless pride, fool fanatic fed only lies.”
Movement is SPY’s biggest ally, especially in a world full of watchful eyes. They keep low and strike when necessary, but keep a momentum running as if all the public was against them. On “Labor Dispute,” the audience begs for a reprieve and SPY essentially looks into their hopeful eyes and pushes their head further under the murky waters.
Describing a dystopia hellhole, “Remember eventually your time runs out, labor will be heard, labor will strike. Accruing wealth you don’t deserve, denying those whose work you steal, a chance at a decent life.” In the final lines of the track, SPY voices more concern for its own brotherhood of man than a coalition of the upper class.
Those same people that SPY were pulverizing in the first tracks, end up as a partnership to destroy together. Illustrating, “Send your pigs to repress us, when we’re done with them, it’s you we bust.”
One last dance with feedback to ring out the lifetime of misery from SPY, HABITUAL OFFENDER quickly becomes a dance with the hardcore demons of your dreams.
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