- Uncontrollable Salvation (CD)

Pardoner is a San Francisco-based rock band and Uncontrollable Salvation is their debut album. The 45-minute LP pulls no punches, doubling down on the driving intensity of their earlier work and paying homage to heroes and contemporary experimenters alike (one could make a Sonic Youth and a Dinosaur Jr. Comparison and both would be apt). However, there's a simultaneous disaffection and technical prowess that makes the music distinctly 'Pardoner', placing them at the curious intersection of slacker-rock and punk, a space where songs are as fun as they are angst-ridden. The albums uncompromising 7-½ minute closing track somehow manages to juxtapose violent guitar riffs with an expansive, rock opera outro before abruptly concluding. Uncontrollable Salvation brims with energy, ideas, and the lurking anxiety of change, but the tension is no match for the right combination of distortion and cathartic drums.