Indiana screamo vets Usurp Synapse reunited last year, and now they’re about to put out their first proper release in 20 years. It’s an EP called Polite Grotesqueries, and it’s the first music that the band wrote together since 2004’s A Vile Contamina EP. (In 2019, an EP called Adult Adoption came out under the name The Usurp Synapse, but that was a solo release by guitarist Don Kirkland.) The EP officially drops Friday (5/3) via Zegema Beach Records, but a full stream premieres right here.
The band says, “I think we picked up where we left off and have continued to naturally progress as a band. It has classic elements of Usurp, but we wanted to expand past the grindy screamo sound that we are probably most known for. This EP incorporates noise rock and other different vocal styles while still within the Usurp song structure that leaves you asking ‘What the fuck was that?'”
That should give you a good idea of what to expect, and I’d add that it’s a reunion EP that really adds to the band’s legacy. The sassy, screamed vocals and chaotic song structures sound as deliriously fresh today as they would have 20 years ago, and it fits right in with a lot of the newer bands that Usurp have influenced (like, for example, Wristmeetrazor, who are named after an Usurp Synapse song).
The EP is titled Polite Grotesqueries but its original title was AssIIAss, and its original artwork featured that title shaved into the Mona Lisa’s eyebrows. Apparently, that artwork was rejected by streaming services due to obscenity and copyright issues, so they changed the name, but Zegema Beach Records is still putting out a one-time cassette pressing with the original artwork. Pre-orders for that will be live on the label’s website soon.
Listen to the EP below. Usurp Synapse play a ZBR Pre-Fest show with meth. in Chicago on Friday (5/3); and they play the Bay Area’s California Kicks Fest in July (7/5-7/6) with Jeromes Dream, Capsule, Heavenly Blue, Ostraca, Sonagi, Nuvolascura, Massa Nera, and more.
