Clever and angry is a tough sell. Oftentimes, the purveyor of both ends up being mislabeled as pretentious, sardonic or obtuse. Untied States are no exception. Instant Everything, Constant Nothing lays out a bleak, futile landscape over noisy repetition and violent vocal structures. From the outset, they intend to brutalize your idea of a rock band and brutalize their own songs as well. The crazy thing is, it kinda works.

The more successful aspects lie in their creepy, sustained guitar wails. Opener “Gorilla the Bull” pulsates with gyrating rhythm and considerably rangy guitar. The song bridges in and out of swells of noise, and meditative lyrics. When all else fails, Untied States keep their cleverness and musicality close to the listener. If there is anything I love about this album, it’s the chances they take.

Similar structures mark “Not Fences, Mere Masks” as they caterwaul with off-kilter structures. It’s almost nonsensical how they maintain their maniacal subtext with a smooth exterior. Even when marching through machine-gun drums, “Not Fences…” fixates the listener on the parts ahead. The song is a fixture of minutiae– vocal melodies are backed into corners, screams are illuminated with crunchy guitar and occasional filler to round out a fantastic sound.

“Unsilvered Mirrors” begins as a slow-down with reverberated keys and moaning vocals that lead the listener back to the signature style. It’s almost unfortunate that we are led back to the driving loudness– the change added a density that I did not expect. That said, it’s another solid song. Bright, clean guitar gives the song solidity as the vocals and drums meander in and out of the previous moans. All the while, I awaited a subpar moment. At some point, the band had to get boring.

I hate to feel negative so early in an album with standout moments, but my sensibilities were correct. If I were to listen to this album one song a day, one song at a time, I’d probably rave for days about how good it really is. Everything is there: solid instrumentation, creepy vocals, fun rhythms, filled-in weirdness that adds rather than subtracts. Unfortunately, the one thing Untied States lacks is the prowess to know when the production values and over-the-top wildness need to peel back to a layered intensity. While each songs pounds and drives, I am taken further away from the diversity that the band so craves. It’s funny, they do everything they can to provide me with what I want, and I end up needing less.

The attempts are there later: “These Dead Birds” is a nice change but is layered with inexplicable noises that make the song a cluster of random melody. Static, sonic intensity roams throughout, despite the softness of the song itself. The same thing goes for the start of carnival-barker “Take Time For Always.” As the destructive force of Untied States approaches, I found myself bracing for unpleasantness, like a sneeze approaching. “Wrestling With Entropy in the Rehabbed Factory” actually gets everything right, but runs short of some of other songs.

Then, “Delusions Are Grandeur” rips and destroys, leaving the listener with a glimpse of what to expect from this band in the future. As my roommate put it: “these guys are a step away from being amazing.” Whether it is a step backwards or forwards in sound, “Delusions” is a good reminder of why this is an invocation and an invitation of an album rather than a scare-tactic. It’s important to say that I like Untied States, because I feel like I am trashing them. It’s almost like a coach wanting to continually tear down a player with great potential. Or a doctor showing a patient a photo of a smoker’s lungs. This has a great deal of potential energy disguised as kinetic.

Even better, Instant Everything, Constant Nothing is a perfect name. The songs are ever present and overbearing, but subtly fantastic. The self-awareness of the band is paramount to their future, and like most self-aware bands, they know it. Whether they take my humble advice and scale back or just delve full-on into the weird destiny they seem to crave, this is an interesting band. The album may not have left the impression they wanted, but it was a series of individual accomplishments that cannot be ignored– whether you want to or not. At least they accomplished that, right?