AMG Review of Wars

J. Scott McClintock
All Music Guide

Sheer, unbridled noise exuberance is the modus operandi for Mobile, AB's fearsome/fun XBXRX, and their third, full-length album Wars finds the group refining their sound while losing none of their visceral charm. Guitars, effects boxes, drums and larynx-ripping, screamo vocals collide in an outfreakage of distortion and adrenaline, leaving little in the way of breathing room on the album's 12 tracks. It's exhausting stuff, but not in a typical "noise rock" fashion -- think the Boredoms with a little more allegiance to rock song structure. There's a little start/stop, math rock complexity to some of the tunes, but nothing pushing them into Modest Mouse territory. The way XBXRX do noise rock puts them closer to the Pixies and Dismemberment Plan than any Wolf Eyes-like bombast, and that makes them unique in a genre becoming more and more crowded with meretricious posers.