Mental Gymnast's "I Want to Believe" opens with one of the most disorienting combinations I've heard in a while, a bright, almost poppy synth hook sitting right on top of distorted punk guitars and a drum track that does not let up. It shouldn't work. It does.
Imagine if you removed the bro'ish elements from hardcore and replaced them with synths.
That's exactly what this sounds like. The rhythm section drives the whole thing forward like it's trying to outrun something, and Adam Gecking's vocals come in screamed and raw with this desperate urgency, you can hear him pushing past the point of comfort, and every line lands like a real warning, not a performance.
The lyrics don't pull punches. "We're all rats onboard / A sinking ship we can't afford" hits over that relentless beat, and the synth line keeps cutting back through the noise like it refuses to let you sink all the way down with it. Chaotic and cynical…
And damn they make it fun. They have a new fan right here.
