Despite the ostensible accessibility of the New York four-piece’s heavy yet defined sound back in the ‘90s and Walter Schreifels’ perfectly husked vocals they never reached the commercial success of grunge that developed on the opposite side of America in Seattle.
Opening track ‘Illuminant’ reads from the same playbook as lead single ‘Fazer’ from the band’s 1993 major label debut Slip: that is ultra heavy with bass, drums and guitar that are so well produced each remains defined with Schreifels’ perfectly pained cry sitting atop.
And then track two, ‘Under The Screw’, barrels in driven by the unrelenting persistence of drummer Alan Cage – informed by the heaviness of 1995’s Manic Compression but with the same pristine ‘womp’ of the opening song. By the time you get to track six, the ’emo’tional title track, you realise that Interiors is a masterclass from the band that basically invented the genre and paved the way for bands like Jimmy Eat World and Thursday to conquer the globe in the early 2000s.
9/10
