Photo by Edwin Cubillos

“Damning Evidence” encroaches on you with an energy that will stress you out before making you break into a sweat. As the latest preview from Landowner’s fourth full-length, Escape the Compound, the Holyoke post-punk quintet keep you held in a wiry cell of mental strain complete with ultr nervous guitar and bass lines and a drum beat that may as well be set to the monitor of a rising heartbeat. The biggest troll of suspense in it all is that you don’t really even know what you’re being taken in for, as vocalist Dan Shaw sketches out details in broad strokes under the lamp’s heat while guitarists Elliot Hughes and Jeff Gilmartin, bassist Josh Owsley, and drummer Josh Daniel pressurize air in the room. For their part, Landowner are beating the accusations by way of convincing theatrics on the small stage, but as for rest of us? Guilty as sin…

Landowner’s Escape the Compound will be released July 21st on Born Yesterday Records.