We don’t know much about eX-Tradition except it’s s a quartet made up of Florence, Daniel, Ande, and Geoff based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, making its debut with a 3-track EP “The Holy Pervert”, recorded with Hart Seely (Sheer Mag) and Arthur Rizk (the Cold World, Eternal Champion, War Hungry).
The band takes cues from the atmospheric Post-punk ala The Cure and The Chameleons through a compelling blend of round resonant basslines, bouncy rhythms, and Robert Smith-esque plaintive vocals, infused with intricate layers of reverb-laden poignant jangling guitars, reflecting melancholy and pain in the ‘life’s new beginning’ of the doomy opener “A Total Lifespan”, against the bittersweet nuances of the subsequent title track “The Holy Pervert”, regarding the hardship of being alienated and oppressed by the self-righteous.
A slight departure yet not in intensity, the final “The Rot (Of Wealth)” uses biblical metaphors to shed light on the toxic nature of people who only care about what things look like on the outside, not what lies within, as delves into the bouncy rhythms and forlorn melodicism of 80s anarcho-punk bands such as Zounds, Flowers In The Dustbin and The Mob.
The song tumbles sorrowfully through rumbling and crackling percussions, murky churning basslines along with bristling and ringing guitar strumming, whilst urgent brooding and declaiming vocals release angst and melancholy.
Definitely full of familiar 80s resonances, the ones we like the most to be fair, in eX-Tradition‘s EP is a first opus well crafted, played and arranged to be absolutely intriguing and promising.
