Photo from Bandcamp

Tessa and Max of WVAU asked Protomartyr‰’s singer, Joe Casey, what he would be doing if he wasn‰’t in a band. He said “I‰’d be at home probably watching old episodes of Family Feud on TV wondering what went wrong in my life.‰” Casey‰’s humble self-awareness becomes apparent to anyone listening to Protomartyr‰’s music. The group has been commended for this and their DIY punk-meets-metal-meets-Manchester-post-punk sound. Relatives In Descent, released in September, 2017 is Protomartyr‰’s most thematically coherent album to date blending lyrical complexities with the band‰’s fuzzy, intense music.

The Detroit quartet‰’s fourth album also marks the groups‰’ debut on Domino Records. While Relatives In Descent carries over many of the band‰’s sonic qualities from other releases, the new album feels labored in a way their other release don‰’t. In songs like “Night Blooming Cereus‰” and “the Chuckler‰” the band dials back the heavy distortion and frantic drumming to reveal a different intensity. Every dynamic change, guitar tone, and drum pattern feels ripe for interpretation alongside singer Joe Casey‰’s lyrics. Casey has always been singing about the band‰’s home in Detroit. But his analysis has become more holistic and systemic in Relatives In Descent with themes of rivers and industry tying Detroit to a larger system of resources, capital, and power. Casey is conscious of who Detroit was made for and made to benefit.

Casey said about as much when asked by NPR about the “meaning‰” of the track “Here‰’s the Thing‰” responding: “The ‰thing‰’ in the song is unfettered capitalism at the expense of humanity.‰” With songs like “Male Plague‰Û, the band draws attention to a theme of Femininity as it clashes with the status quo of American politics and the music scene from which they arose. This hyper-awareness of the nada own position in Detroit and in music allows for Casey to string together razor sharp observations of America in his lyrics. With Relatives In Descent, Protomartyr separated themselves from their peers bringing thoughtful, cohesive, narrative without being over-the-top. Casey bars lyrical conclusions to keep Relatives In Descent open to different meanings giving listeners the agency to create their own relationship with the music.