Album Review | ‘Sustenance Pill’ 

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The rock band Kindofkind has been on the Rochester scene for more than eight years, but its latest album — “Sustenance Pill,” released just before Halloween — has the urgency of a new project with something to prove.

“Sustenance Pill” is both a natural progression from the band’s previous record “Odds and Ends Begin to Even Out” and a severe departure.

“Odds and Ends” featured jaunty guitar work and a tendency toward prog-rock structures and jam-friendly hooks — hell, the former album’s “Polysoul” even contained ukulele.

On “Sustenance Pill,” vocalist-guitarist Sunny Sweeny, bassist Ian Fait, and drummer-vocalist Shola Blair redraw the lines with a different set of musical values. Any sense of whimsy is abandoned in favor of confrontation, and moments of quietude and contentment are replaced by unbridled screams that were previously unheard of from Kindofkind, but hinted at on “At Sixes and Sevens,” the closing track from “Odds and Ends.”


The connective tissue between the two collections is the band’s ability to break into a fuzzed-out, distortion-laden freakout. The difference is that previously the frenzy sounded blissful. With “Pill,” the brooding mood regularly erupts into sonic violence. The net effect is cathartic and fresh.


Though the sound is heavier, there isn’t a compromise on technical precision; if anything, the trio now sounds tighter and in better control of the structure and movement of its songs. The first few songs on “Sustenance Pill” flirt with a sophisticated brand of emo before “Vacancy” and “Parallels” bring grittier vocal flourishes. Then, “Sunabouzu” and “Hereafter” bring the blistering post-hardcore that was promised earlier on the album.


That’s not to say that “Sustenance Pill” isn’t tuneful. Melodies, both vocal and instrumental, are plentiful throughout, and sophisticated chord progressions make for tasty ear candy when you’re not expecting it. But they’re all delivered on the razor’s edge of intense music bristling with ennui and rage.

Fans of early-aughts bands like Hawthorne Heights, Underoath, and Dead Poetic will find a lot to sink their teeth into, with an added eccentricity reminiscent of The Mars Volta.


Kindofkind has always been a wildly inventive and wonderfully frenetic band. But there’s a newfound intensity on “Sustenance Pill.” The sound world is crunchy and slightly claustrophobic, but best of all, it’s unpredictable.

Daniel J. Kushner is an arts writer at CITY. He can be reached at [email protected].