Review: The Phantom Limbs – Random Hymns EP

This one might scramble your brains a bit in the traditional Gold Standard way. Punk in attitude, freeform in structure, drenched in organs thrust along by the occasional drum bit stolen from The Cure’s Pornography. Random Hymns drops you down the rabbit hole and dares you to climb out. It isn’t pretty. It isn’t supposed to be. Not gothic, although you can see where comparisons to Christian Death come from in “The Olympics,” but it’s more in the delivery and snarl than the subject matter. “Jackalope Rising” is a junk drawer wreck of every idea they must have had kicking around that twitches about for nearly 10 minutes before returning to the 45 Grave punk-organ grind.