CMJ HEART TMIBH

THIS MOMENT IN BLACK HISTORY: It Takes A Nation Of Assholes To Hold Us Back
Just as their hometown is named “America’s Poorest City,” Cleveland’s aggro-anarcho crew drops their second Molotov cocktail. Like most great Ohio acts from whom they’ve taken inspiration (Pagans, Spike In Vain, Dennis Kucinich), they do not slide neatly into any specific category. The initially overt spazzcore flavor is there (think An Albatross), but This Moment flings bottles farther back to the Bad Brains’ overwhelming fury at the state of things. After an introductory ’60s Negro-relations-LP sound bite splice-up, the razor blasts kick in with a vengeance. But all the stabbing is undercut with Lamont Thomas’ shifty, loose drumming, which takes a turn from the usual herkyjerys. And after dropping references to flamboyant ex-Cavaliers and Charlie Parker, the band exposes more tricky maneuvers, like spine-weaving riffs, synth-chopped pang-pop and the singer’s fairly articulate spit-spew, which allows you to actually catch a couple of the complaints.
- Eric Davidson