Johns – Night Market CS (Swimming Faith Records)

Johns is an extremely energetic noise rock/post-hardcore quartet from Buffalo, New York. The group comprises of John Toohill on vocals and guitars, Nick Gordon on guitars, Sean Kader on bass and Ryan McMullen on drums. Night Market is their second offering to the broader audiences, with eleven compelling compositions that are tearing everything apart with its loudness. Previously, the group released Grift Marks, an exceptional debut recording. The sole intention of Johns is to deliver profoundly detailed sonic clusters to the audience who crave technically demanding noise rock sound. With great assurance, I can affirm they succeeded in their intentions.

Right with the first beats of this record, Johns are entering into the deep state of controlled chaos, saturated with intense guitar shreds. Both guitars are fighting for dominance through cleverly structured dualities that, all of a sudden, become unified into the colossal slab of noise. The guitars lean somewhere between semi-distorted chord progressions and high gain segments, usually presented at massive choruses. These arrangements are pairing to a dynamic vocal performance by John Toohill, who proved he’s up to the task in a wide variety of genres. Besides some standard explorations into the vast universe of noise rock, Johns are including essentials of post-hardcore. Still, there’s an unavoidable post-punk ambiance levitating above, and the strong presence of obscure darkness entirely embraces the ferocious music.

Ravaging rhythm section liberates the ultimate power through slightly distorted basslines and appropriate drumming performance. Nothing would sound so defined without their performance, and these instruments are delivering equal portions of raw energy like guitars. Night Market appears furious, chaotic, rough, but also profoundly emotive, melancholic, and dark at certain moments. The group operates as a unified mechanism throughout the entire recording but leaves enough room for improvisations. There are enough experimentations with the sound already, so Johns moderately supplement more improvising elements just to highlight some segments.

Night Market unites noise rock, post-hardcore and post-punk into a precisely orchestrated material that carries loads of delightful moments. No matter what genre you prefer, you’ll solely enjoy this album in its entirety. Night Market comes on a silver cassette housed in a standard jewel case. It also includes two-panel cover artwork with a glowing square on the front and all the info about the release on the inlay cover. Grab your copy at Swimming Faith web store or Johns Bandcamp page.