REVIEW: YOUNG WIDOWS 'IN AND OUT OF YOUTH AND LIGHTNESS' (TEMPORARY RESIDENCE)

Once merely the band that emerged like a strutting, swaggering rock-fuelled hardcore butterfly from the raucous, combative pupa of Louisville, Kentucky hardcore giants Breather Resist, Young Windows existed in that mid-'00s purgatory of bands who sounded a lot like and a lot better than the shit that was clogging up the Ferret and Solid State rosters. Yelpy, bearded, checked shirt wearing stuff with difficult lyrics and discordant rhythms – the sort of thing that Everytime I Die popularised. The trio's 2006 debut 'Settle Down City' continued down Breather Resist's Helmet/Jesus Lizard-inspired feedback-driven template to the immense delight of a handful of people who gave the hardest shit in the world, which was an increasingly declining circle of listeners, being as Breather Resist fans were largely just people who were too fixated with appearing cool on forums to admit to liking Converge.

Five years later and 'In and Out...' could be the product of a anonymous band for all the good context does. If you ear-squint over the speakers you can probably pick up a signature guitar sound or something tedious and possibly entirely imaginary of that ilk, but trying to crowbar the disc into some sort of flow diagram of the band's output is futile, only serving to underline how alien a record this is to their canon. As foreshadowed on 2009's split with dishwater-swilling post-metal bores Pelican – urgently in need of following the dodo into extinction (and also, has anyone pointed out how shit the drummer is ololol?) – Evan Patterson has soothed his serrated bray with liquid woodsmoke, haunting the songs like 16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards crooning through a coffin lid, the guitars slide roll across the bass like tumbleweed in dirge-rock Americana landscape not unlike that explored by Murder by Death and Across Tundras.

As hypnotic and comforting as the passage of the sky overhead on a warm evening when a combination of alcohol and deep thoughts compel you to lie back on the ground, Young Widows' noise rock'n'core template has been broken apart for firewood and all that remains are gentle, glowing embers.