Review: United Nations’ Brutal Sophomore Effort “The Next Four Years”
–Written by Michael Hogan
I first heard about United Nations not long after the release of their debut album. They were very secretive about everything, going so far as to wear matching Ronald Reagan masks and not telling anyone who was actually in the band. It didn’t take long for astute listeners to determine that Geoff Rickley and Daryl Palumbo (of Thursday and Glassjaw, respectively) were a part of the project – pretty solid credentials on their own. I was really sold when I heard Converge drummer Ben Koller had something to do with it.The details on what specifically he did with the group are still hazy (even Wikipedia is a bit ambiguous, stating that he “played drums for the band for at least one performance in 2009”) but seeing as I was on a rather intense Converge bender at the time (resulting in two Converge tattoos, actually) that was enough for me.
When I checked out the band, it was all just nonsense; it was ridiculous noise, the noise that could only result from a meeting of the minds behind Thursday, Glassjaw, and Converge. It was perfect, in that it was a perfect disaster. But that was the point.
It’s been six years since that album came out. During that time United Nations has gone through several unofficial line-up changes, Rickley’s main project (Thursday) broke up, and the band participated in a few not inconsequential disagreements with the intergovernmental organization they borrow their name from. Yet here they are, seemingly unscathed on the other side and armed with The Next Four Years, a new full-length album that will surely piss off a few more federal agencies.
A lot can happen in six years though. Seeing as two of the now-permanent band members – a pair of guys from Pianos Become the Teeth – had nothing to do with the last album, it was hard to set much of a benchmark for the follow-up. Their self-titled was great, but how would this stand up to it? Would it even be comparable?
First off, it’s definitely different. It’s immediately clear that this is not the same band. It’s much less Converge and Glassjaw, and much more Pianos Become the Teeth, but still lead by the strained, sometimes appropriately shaky vocals of Rickley. Despite the stressed uncertainty that has been a trademark of his voice since Thursday’s Full Collapse, Rickley sounds a lot more at home on this album; more comfortable than he has sounded since the early days of Thursday. Towards their later years, it always felt like Rickley was searching for a sound that Thursday could never quite find, and it looks like he has finally found it with this second United Nations full length.
The album combines the dark, dissonant screamo riffs we’ve come to expect from PBtT with that hardcore sound Rickley has been perfecting for the better part of a decade, sprinkled with the chaotic remnants of United Nation’s early days – the stylistic influences of Converge and Glassjaw. It’s the most coherent yet harsh effort from United Nations yet. It may have taken six years, but the wait was well worth it, and the band finally found the sound they were looking for. The sound that would come from the sort of band that not only has the balls to publish the cease and desist letters from the federal government on their album cover, but the substance to back it up.
Check out “Meanwhile On Main Street” from The Next Four Years below, and grab a copy of the album here.