Loma Prieta - Self Portrait (Deathwish Inc.) 2015
8
The latest album from Loma Prieta isn’t a revolution in the band’s sound or aesthetic. The preference for lo-fi is still presented in the display of the new material and one is “obligated” to wonder the effect of such insistence. You see, Loma Prieta are undoubtedly at the forefront of hardcore/screamo music – even if the following doesn’t translate it – and have been showing it for quite some time. Self Portrait is, like its predecessor I.V., a rather exciting and enthralling collection of songs that display an unmeasured level of songwriting quality, made by a band that is perilously emotionally, courageously personal, and irremediably dark. If it’s hardly debatable the remarkable quality that the album exudes, then the way the album is presented can be easily questioned.