United Nations The Next Four Years

"An intermittently functioning band since 2005, United Nations tended to promise more music than they actually made and preemptively sabotaged the music they did release, more content to be a vehicle for both high-concept and lowbrow referential hardcore gags—not the least of which is their preferred nomenclature of "screamo power-violence." That continues to an extent on their upcoming second LP The Next Four Years, whose typeface and title are both sourced from Black Flag; but having solidified their lineup with members of Thursday, Glassjaw, Converge, and Pianos Become the Teeth, "Serious Business" teases out the most obvious irony of all—that a group named after an impotent peacemaking entity sounds like its constituents' bands engaged in the most savage mortal combat.

The latter two sound like they've won out, as the hellbent aggressiveness of "Serious Business" borders on science fiction supervillainy; though All We Love We Leave Behind proved otherwise, fallible flesh and bone shouldn't be capable of capturing this kind of inhuman ferocity with such clarity and technical precision. But Geoff Rickly puts up a hell of a fight: he's the only publicly named member of United Nations, as if it wasn't obvious from his repetition of "This is serious business" amidst the fallout of the final minute. It's given the gravity of someone speaking his last words, intended to be remembered as someone who stood his ground against the inevitable apocalypse. Why so serious? This is unfinished business from War All the Time, a song brought to you by a falling bomb."

-p4k