HINTS
The Way to Function
(self-released)
**** (out of 5)

Seattle drummer Myke Pelly has dismounted the great power-gloom-rock band Haunted Horses and gone solo with HINTS. His debut release under this handle retains the unrelenting darkness of his previous group and adds more industrial grime and grind and contains the sort of punishing drum work that would make Killing Joke’s Paul Ferguson or PiL’s Martin Atkins proud. The Way to Function clocks in at under 10 minutes, making its strident points with admirable concision and concussiveness. That it came out on Halloween is probably not coincidental. This shit is scary, but in a decidedly non-corny, post-industrial-wasteland way, thankfully. To paraphrase Steven Jesse Bernstein, more of this noise, please.