I’ve been reviewing so many crappy albums tonight (actually been doing ‘em as “shorts” on Dagger; which means a quick assessment before it’s out of my life), I had to check to make sure I still have a pulse. Artsy wannabe annoyance, schlock electronica, a headache-inducing Indie/whatever passes for mainstream thing, and a modern R&B pop/hip hop mash by a bunch of kids in Vancouver, Washington (embarrassing! I love Washington!) I was starting to think I had to take a break; just switching to music I know will make me happy for the evening’s balance. Then I pulled Anchoress’ new joint from the pile.

Well, thank the rock gods. Apparently I’m still alive. Anchoress launches Set Sail with 27 seconds of thrash yumminess, “Murder in the Sky Over Burnaby.” Which goes right into a 52-second furtherance of slam accompaniment called “Cadillacs.” After that, the band calms down a tad, with the rest of the tracks clocking in at more like 2 minutes. But “songs” is, more or less, a misnomer here. Anchoress is about smushing the maximum amount of crunching chords, rock-happy hooks, insaniac rants, and annihilating beats into the space of an album. In other words, blasting Set Sail is, more or less, like being at a really good thrashy/speedy punk show.

The other cool thing about Anchoress is that it seems to pick up where Throw Rag left off. And I have deep love for Throw Rag. Anchoress may be more about the quick fix and reverberating head (from all that bangin’) than the more song/melodically-leaning Rag. But Rag never spat out a song called “Zombie on a Plane,” or made me enjoy one about “Curses.” Ahoy!

You might want to bookmark anchoress.bandcamp.com before burning some calories (and regaining some faith younger rockers) to”She-Devil”: