Some people are raised not to acknowledge their anger, to push it down and let it steep, but Portland punk rockers HELP invite us to purge our rage as a form of creative release, the idea being that expressing our hurt is one of the last freedoms we have. Their new release Courage is a long EP stacked with brand new songs and some singles they’ve put out over the past couple years. Their energetic approach to nihilism means they manage to cover a broad range of heavy music in a short time with squealing guitars, scraping percussion, and distinctly frustrated vocals all clawing at release. It’s a vicious response to the discomfort of an anti-human society designed to punish people for both normal daily struggles and crises totally out of their control. On Courage, HELP imagines a world of unity and understanding forged through the universal experience of pain and friction, encouraging this commonality to bring forth structural change.
