Give One Take One by '68 (an 'after the hype' review) : 'Raw, Sweaty and Full of Vital Energy'

Photo: The Album Cover (Courtesy of Cooking Vinyl)

Kerrang once described Atlanta rockers '68 as ''(full of) raw, sweaty and full of vital energy that only comes from people playing from the heart, rather than the hip.'' 'Give One Take One,' their latest release on the Cooking Vinyl label, is a real example of this. Powered by Grammy-winning producer Nick Raskulinecz, who's discography boasts landmark records by iconic bands, including Rush, Foo Fighters, and Alice In Chains, this is an album that uses every ounce of talent at its disposal and benefits hugely from it.

'68 began a new chapter for one of modern metalcore’s most respected frontmen. Josh Scogin left an influential imprint on the burgeoning metalcore scene in Norma Jean, despite only appearing on a single album.  After emerging as the voice, founder, and agitprop provocateur of The Chariot, who laid waste to convention across a brilliantly unhinged and defiantly unpolished catalogue of five full-length noisecore triumphs of dissonant art rock rage, he kickstarted this small band with the big sound in 2013, naming the two-man outfit he modestly undersells as “a little rock, a little blues, a little hardcore” after his father’s old Camaro. With his percussive partner-in-crime, Nikko Yamada, unleashing an array of guitar, bass, drums, keys, and pedals, they careen between swinging barnburners, wild haymakers, and a moody atmosphere that is very different to any of their brilliant

Their first 'Humor and Sadness,' a gutsy, roots-infused first album, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard New Artist Chart in 2014, on the heels of a self-released EP that sold through its initial run in a matter of hours.  'Two Parts Viper' followed in 2017 in a similar vein but with greater nuance and streamlining of their sound. 

Now  'Give One Take One,' is the culmination of this trilogy, a cocktail of that roots-tinged, Black Key's sound of the first album with the powerful, focused rock of the second. But what strikes you most about this album is its sprawling, organic approach to experimentation. It travels around so many different facets of creativity, from the psychedelic, disturbing and symphonic trio of songs that hold up the structure of this 10 track odyssey  'The Knife, The Knife, The Knife,' 'The Silence, The Silence, The Silence' and 'The Storm, The Storm, The Storm' to the pure, old school, punky noise of 'Lovers in Death' and even the Stereophonics-style, grimy, hard rock of 'Nervous Passenger' without feeling forced or jarring. 

The true stunner on this eclectic mix is 'Life and Debt' which channels Raskulinecz's 90's sound, its production filled with layered, lamenting, earthy Nirvana guitars and syncopated, thrashing drums only to end on one of the saddest lines I've heard in rock music:  'I’ll see you again, maybe next year we’ll be better off and I can shake my hands/Clear as I can I try to tell you all/But you can’t understand and you might never will/so I’ll just live in this song.' For me that line sums up the real core of Josh Scogin's vocals, that every track here is him telling you his greatest secrets, laying his heart bare to the listener and inviting you to be his judge, presenting a rare side not necessarily scene in traditional rock.

In 'Give One Take One' '68 manage to find beauty in the chaos, creating something that is eclectic and varied as it is raw and untamed. Another original evolution for a band built on testing the boundaries. 

Thanks to Public City PR for sending over my the digital preview.