Bitter Branches’ sophomore record is a tight, surefooted display of noise rock excellence.
Release date: March 6, 2026 | Equal Vision Records | Bandcamp | Instagram
Having kids, John Paul Jones once quipped, makes one understand why some animals eat their young. Stick around the hardcore scene long enough, though, and you’ll start seeing why, when it comes to that music scene, it’s the elders that tend to get eaten: The Misfits, Cro-Mags, the seemingly endless Black Flag/Flag reunions and quarrels – the list of hardcore legends not covering themselves with glory, let’s put it that way – well, let’s just say that list is long. Be it money, quarrels, or losing touch with what made their music so unique and groundbreaking in the early days; whatever it is, we’ve seen it happen way too many times.
Thankfully, not all hardcore elder statesmen end up overstaying their welcome. Take Tim Singer, for example. The formidable frontman, who spent the nineties in metalcore pioneers Deadguy and underground darlings Kiss It Goodbye, has been having one hell of a career renaissance lately; just consider last year’s comeback album he recorded with Deadguy, Near-Death Travel Services, where he flashed his acerbic best and garnered rave reviews (including the top spot in the Decibel Magazine albums of the year list).
Or, better yet, take the exhibit presented here today: Bitter Branches’ sophomore album, Let’s Give The Land Back To The Animals, where – spoiler alert – he flashes some more of the patented Tim Singer acerbity, with some help from other hardcore bigwigs. And when I say he sounds acerbic here, I mean, all you need is a little taste and Singer hits you in the face with bag of small change:
For the uninitiated, Bitter Branches is a post-hardcore project started at the tail end of the 2010s by a group of musicians with a serious playing-shows-in-sweaty-basements pedigree. Beyond Singer, the band boasts bassist/vocalist Dan Yemin, who played in Lifetime, Paint It Black, and Kid Dynamite; drummer Jeff Tirabassi, formerly of Walleye; and guitarists Matt Ryan (ex-Cavalry) and Kevin Somerville (ex-Kochiyama).
After putting out an EP (This May Hurt a Bit) smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, the band turned a lot of heads, intrigued by the return of Singer and Yemin to the scene, and bored by the lack of shows, social activity or anything other than Netflix binges, really. But we don’t need to relive that part.
Though I did love that EP, their debut album, Your Neighbors Are Failures, admittedly left me pretty cold. Frankly, I was ready to write the band off as yet another case of ‘I’ll just take the first release, thank you very much‘ – but man, I’m so glad I didn’t, and I’m so happy I gave this new record a spin.
Because on Let’s Give The Land Back To The Animals, Bitter Branches just kicked it up a notch. Their sound, which on this record lands firmly in the Amphetamine Reptile school of skronky, groovy noise rock, is tight, direct, and confident. They fully embrace their Jesus Lizard and Cows influences, but forego both the muscular grit of Unsane and the blown-out fuzz of Cherubs, in favor of a more polished, lean and direct sound. I even hear a little bit of Dazzling Kilmen influence sprinkled here and there, which is always a massive plus in my book. They paint inside the lines, sure, and they mostly stick to a simple formula; but, let me tell ya, it’s a winning one, and one I just haven’t been able to stop listening to since the record came out.
The first song, “Rat Poison”, paints a map for the duration of the listening experience: we get solid, basic but powerful drums that sound massive; a dominant bass guitar that anchors the whole thing while providing that hardcore oomph heaviness; angular, angsty guitars that go hard on the feedback and push their darting lines behind the rhythm section; and between them all, Singer’s angry man shouts at clouds monologues, a voice that talks, screams, grinds its teeth, and runs freely everywhere in between throughout the record’s ten songs.
Overall, the album just works; it’s a tight collection of songs that start and end in the same mood and with the same energy, with feedback pauses, some solo sections where Yemin and Tirabassi get the spotlight, and plenty of start-stop dynamics moving things along nicely. But in between the usual nod your head and shake your fist energy, Bitter Branches throw just enough exotic spices to keep the whole dish fresh.
Moments like the Devo-esque skronk-stomp that opens “Cave Dwellers”, or the snaking Discord Records guitar lines that serve as the base of “Posture Contest”, or the out-of-nowhere acoustic guitar strumming they on top of them in the middle of the same song – these are the little touches of a confident, tight band of musicians, who can pull from decades of songwriting experience and come up with brilliant touches that keep the listener engaged whenever things start relying a little too much on the same song patterns.
They do just enough to keep you on your proverbial toes, but goddamn, that approach is so effective throughout the whole thing. Personally, the songs here (and the striking album cover) just lodged themselves into my brain like proper wormholes. And though it’s still very early in the year, Bitter Branches are making a strong claim to end up on my albums of the year list.
So don’t make the same mistake I did, kids. Don’t write off your scene elders, especially if they’re still as angry at the state of the world as Singer and Yemin’s lyrics make them out to be. And If you’re looking for a smoother around the edges, headbobbing, and just fun take on a classic nineties sound, this is a great way to scratch that itch.
