Jericho Sirens

The best Hot Snakes album to date in my opinion. It rocks from start to end and gets better the more I listen to it. No wasted tracks. Thank you to this great band for putting out such a brilliant album after so much time off. My favorite song so far is "Psychoactive" but you can't go wrong with anything here.

So great.

a collection of clear-eyed apocalypse-in-progress anthems.

The best album I've heard this month and it's just been a couple days. Very fresh sounding. Ferocious. Tight playing that sounds like they are playing with a sense of urgency. Starts off in your face and doesn't let up for 30 minutes. Great stuff.

As already stated by @Notowndemos, this record really does bring all the elements from previous Hot Snakes records together. Both Mario and Jason are both playing drums; you get to guess who's playing on which songs, though. Rick's singing is ferocious and the lyrics are really amazing. Rhythmically, this feels the closest to Drive Like Jehu of any Hot Snakes record: there are some odd tempos here and there but things don't bog down into complexity for its own sake. The bass sound is solid and powerful, and the "Hot Snakes Sub" is there as well on a few tracks. If you have the great privilege to see them play live, you'll feel that sub, too! Hey look, it's Gar schralping in the soup! And, as you'd expect, the guitar work is fantastic. John and Rick work so well together it's almost unfair. Great riffs and rhythms drive everything over top of the drums and bass, with colorful melodies ringing out before the downstrokes slash it all wide open. John's keyboard work is perfect: little touches here and there to fill things out and tickle your ears just right. Someday the Hot Snakes will make a 44 minute LP, but until then this will do, I guess. Play loud and repeat!

Hot Snakes hasn’t skipped a beat after a 14 year hiatus. Jericho Sirens is refreshingly familiar for long time fans, but has little to offer fresh young ears. (Weather that’s a good or bad thing is a whole other conversation.) After 3 perfect albums and a 14 year break, is this album necessary? No. But is it good? Yes, it’s real good. They deliver what you’d expect in the riff department, and the recording is bit bigger than previous efforts, but the vocals sound a little tired at times, and the album could have benefited from stronger sequencing. Small complaints, but there’s nothing wrong with holding the masters of their craft up to the standards they’ve created. They have yet to capture the sonic power of their live shows, but that may not be a possibility. All in all, fans won’t be disappointed with this album, and the tasteful odes to Ghost Rider and Youth Of America ate a fun little treat.

This record is a total accumulation of all three records leading up to this record. It has it all. Both drummers are on this record. the Forever best guitar tones and the bass is finally a little louder and more prominent. This record has a few punk tunes a few moody (suicide invoice) era sounding tunes and a couple epic jams with the perfect Reis riffs that are just too perfect to articulate with words. This is the best record of 2018.