Album Of The Week: Screaming Females: Desire Pathway

Screaming Females’ eighth studio album starts with a sound that you don’t hear too often on Screamales records: a synth. That keyboard, played by Jarrett Dougherty, starts as a simple, bloopy, hypnotic figure. After a couple of repetitions, though, it starts to degrade and fuzz out, like a terrestrial radio signal fading. The sound then warps and atomizes, and just after the 30-second mark, we hear the slight hiss of a crash cymbal. The synth cuts off abruptly, and a monster riff comes crashing into the song like the Kool-Aid Man bursting through the wall. Suddenly, we’re in very familiar territory. Screaming Females, one of the all-time great underground rock power trios, are back on their bullshit. They are bringing the big riffs, and they are not fucking around.