Rob's Album of The Week: Verse's Bitter Clarity, Uncommon Grace

After breaking up back in 2009 and in turn the Providence punk scene taking a major blow, Verse is back with great vengeance and furious anger with Bitter Clarity, Uncommon Grace, the band's 5th studio album since their formation back in 2003. The seething fury of Sean Murphy's poetic rage-filled vocals, Zak Drummond's and Eric Lepine's dueling guitars that flat out shred with face-melting solos and the rhythm section consisting of the epic syncopation between Chris Berg's frets on the bass and the powerful drumming of Shawn Costa complete an amazing record that, in my opinion, is the best punk album to be released so far this year.

Reforming in December of 2011, Verse has been taking the world by storm ever since. Performing in front of a sold out festival crowd at Groezrock in Meerhout, Belguim on April 28th & 29th with the likes of punk legends Refused, Rancid, Thrice, Hot Water Music, The Bronx, The Bouncing Souls and countless others. The new record stakes the band's claim of being back and being here to stay with loud, pulsating tracks that are bound to make you go absolutely crazy once you press play. It reaffirms Verse's status as one of the premier underground punk acts in the world today, bringing the intensity of the band's live shows into 13 songs, an epic accomplishment to say the least.

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"The Selfish of The Earth" is the opening track on the album with epic solos, heavy downbeats and pure relentless vocals courtesy of Sean Murphy about the greed of humanity. "The Relevance of Our Disconnect" is simply amazing, it gets louder, louder and louder with every second accented by a little bit of a blues influence coming from Drummond's and Lepine's guitars. "Finding a Way Out When There Is No Way" is a great song to listen to when you feel like your back is against the wall and every avenue is leading to your downfall, but your resilience will pay off. "The End of All Light" starts off a tad slow, with Murphy slamming down a little poetry about people's self-serving ways and how it pollutes society. The guitars and drums then kick in and invade the track with pure audial excellence, the loud/quiet/loud aspect makes me think if The Pixies were a hardcore punk band rather than alternative, they would have done a similar song. "Oceanic Tendencies" is a mosh pit anthem that's ferocious in every way, making you want to shove people around and then give everyone a big hug afterwards. Those are only some of the tracks I like off of Bitter Clarity, Uncommon Grace, but honestly the whole album is excellent and you should check it out for yourself.

On July 15th, Verse will be having their release show for Bitter Clarity, Uncommon Grace at The Met located in The Hope Artiste Village on 1005 Main St. in Pawtucket. It promises to be one of the biggest local music shows of the summer so make sure to get yourself a ticket. Afterwards Verse will be doing a 16-date tour starting at Vlamrock in Belgium on July 21st and ending at Hevy Fest in Kent, England on August 5th. Until then, make sure to grab a copy of Verse's new album, Bitter Clarity, Uncommon Grace. It'll make you bang your head like there's no tomorrow.

- Rob Duguay