Gouge Away - Burnt Sugar (Digisleeve CD)

Review

There are so, so many great bands within the punk underground, and so many ways to address this genre that’s been branching out in all these different directions for the past 40 years or so. But the best of those bands are still the ones who don’t treat punk or hardcore as genres, with marks to hit and obligations to fulfill. The best bands are the ones who use that music as a vehicle for tense and volatile personal communication, the ones where the people in the band seem like they’d explode if they didn’t put this shit into song form and get it off their collective chest. Gouge Away were always one of those bands. Now, they’re getting better. Two years ago, they deserved your attention. Now, they demand it. - Steregum 5/5