Born To Hotel Floors

Activity “Violent and Vivisect”

Activity’s debut album Unmask Whoever was made in 2019 but matches the tone of 2020 very well – cold and claustrophobic and paranoid, desperate emotions deadened by a cynicism that’s beaten into you from a near total lack of positive news. The record mostly feels like being trapped in a depressive haze, with songs that move on a tension that shifts but never really lifts. “Violent and Vivisect,” the penultimate track on the record, is the only song that allows for a true catharsis. It starts off very tightly wound but in context it nevertheless feels like a gasp of air after so much heavy atmosphere. The eventual climax is a blast of traditional alt-rock on a record in which this rock band otherwise avoids obvious alt-rock dynamics, as though the entire concept of the record was to start from the most harshly electronic that was possible for them and to very gradually allow themselves the permission to cut loose. And even after letting it all out in the final third of this song, it still ends on an unresolved feeling. It’s like getting all riled up and then losing all energy, collapsing into a defeated sigh.

Buy it from Bandcamp.