THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Portland, Oregon’s Bothers have just released their sophomore LP II. The band’s self-titled debut album was a concise and raging lesson in relentless punk ’n’ roll, with tips of the hat to bands like Motörhead and Hot Snakes. II marks a new era for the band. Heavier and more expansive, the album ventures into the realm of metalic hardcore with fiercesome riffing and dynamic tempo changes. The melodic intensity of their first release remains, resulting in an album that calls to mind influences like Tragedy, Laughing Hyenas, Jesus Lizard, Neurosis and Born Against.
The band’s one-sheet succinctly captures the feel of the album in a way only the composers’ could capture. “When you decide it’s finally time to strip naked, scarf a fistful of peyote buttons, and drive an ’82 Cadillac Cutlass deep into the desert in the middle of a lightning storm, Bothers’ second LP should probably be blaring on your tape deck while you daydream about communing with the coyotes or some shit. Two tracks in, you can almost smell the ozone as the horizon explodes.
“Inherently primal, their second offering is nothing short of bespoke savagery — deeper, uglier, and stranger than their first outing. Imagine Hüsker Dü finally found something to be genuinely angry about, or if you ran the first couple Television records through a boardwalk funhouse meat grinder. If you’ve never punched yourself in the throat hard enough to make the room spin like your future swirling down the shitter, this record will make you realize it’s time.”
The members of Bothers all have prolific back catalogs with impressive projects including Prison Suicide, Young Livers, No//se, North Lincoln, and Glass and Ashes. Says drummer John Massel: “We’ve all been in previous bands that have either played or toured together. At some point we all ended up in Portland, and I’m still not sure who’s to blame for this.”
The new album was engineered and mixed by Mike Vera at Brown Sound Studios, mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East, and the cover art was completed by Mark McCoy. The end result is a blistering and melodic hardcore album that is a treat for music listeners and collectors alike, and will surely take its seat on a number of Best of 2022 lists.”
