Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Country: USA
Genre: Noise rock
Full length: No God on the Gold Coast
Format: Digital, CD, cassette
Label: Independent (Digital, CD), Gum Cuzzler Records (cassette)
Release date: May 29, 2026
Progressive avant-garde noise rock has made significant headway over the last five or ten years, with bands using a bit of imagination to advance their music right from the outset of their recording careers. Starting with what are often basic foundations, be it punk, doom, or stoner rock, they clear new paths for invention and change. These paths often lead to ambitious syntheses of genres that hadn’t existed.
As thrash metal, once a stripped-down musical statement, spread into an endless variety of categories, the growth continues to flourish, with bands playing styles that challenge categorization more and more. The Freqs, who formed and set out to break convention in 2019, is yet another example. The four EPs they released since they got together are careful, thorough explorations of how early hardcore punk, early grunge, stoner rock, and psychedelia can intersect.
Add huge doses of noise rock, post-hardcore, and avant-garde punk, along with a fresh new band's resolve to blur the lines between them and see what grows from it, and you have something sure to shatter your eardrums. "Poachers" (2023) particularly showcases their acquired ability to blend noise and trippy atmospheres into stoner rock, with catchiness reminiscent of arena rock from decades past.
At varying levels of astringent, corroding noise from shifting musical perspectives, The Freqs escalated their energy output until they achieved an almost inexhaustible vitality capable of stirring a visceral, blood-boiling response. Any restraint that was present in "Poachers" is completely cast aside on "No God on the Gold Coast," where everything you knew about their sound is ramped up and magnified.
With the momentum to consolidate eight tracks in under twenty-six minutes, they have created a new album that is a high-octane exploration of how much energy they can channel through the fuzz and noise they recorded, while also reinforcing and strengthening the elements where their diverse musical perspectives converge into something grimy, monstrous, progressive, and momentous.
Opening with the sound effect of a computer dialing the internet, "No God on the Gold Coast" is every bit as dark, chaotic and frantic as new or upgraded new directions go. The first track “John Travolta,” even slightly over three minutes in duration, rushes in with a metal-funk groove that bore some comparability to Rage Against The Machine, set to a raunchy no-wave timbre like Sonic Youth and an aura of attending a seedy out of the way city club early in the 80s.
The band plays that song, which also abounds with feedback, atmospheric lead guitars and complex meter signatures, with a resolute eagerness to launch the new direction they’re taking and convince you of their earnestness. This is followed by “Chainsawman,” featuring heavy, repetitive guitars interspersed with single notes, dissonant lead lines, and vocals evocative of isolated psychosis.
This track pushes emotional boundaries with “Lo IQ,” a sharp critique of mankind’s greed. The vocals reach manic heights, while the instruments build a tense atmosphere that carries through “CLEARANCE WRECK.” The song also reveals softer facets of the album, again having similarities to Sonic Youth as well as The Pixies. As if louder, more frantic sections were needed to sustain heaviness, the tension escalates, embodying a conflict between introspection and rage. The concluding effects suggest this struggle remains unresolved.
By this point, the energy has built enough to carry through the next four tracks, creating a cohesive sense of unity across the album. Even when “Secondhand Jesus,” tighter riffs evoke a blend of metal-infused grunge and avant-garde metal, drawing comparisons to Soundgarden and Voivod and “Nite Hag” leans toward Rage Against the Machine and Limp Bizkit. Despite some people thinking heavy, gritty musicianship constrains song structure, it blows a space open enough to allow The Freqs to enrich their songwriting. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Seth Crowell: Guitar, vocals, theremin, short-wave radio manipulation
Ian Mandly: Bass, backing vocals
Zack Fierman: Drums, aux percussion, backing vocals
Nicholas Pentabona: Additional vocals on “Lo IQ”
Andrew Wong: Additional vocals on “Secondhand Jesus”
Track list:
1. John Travolta
2. Chainsawman
3. Lo IQ
4. CLEARANCE WRECK
5. It Might be Rabies
6. Secondhand Jesus
7. Short King
8. Nite Hag
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