7/10

Emerging from the high desert heart of Boise, Idaho, No Can Fly’s debut full-length 'Chemicals Forever' is a raw nerve of a record. Equal parts post-hardcore grit, indie slack, and art-damaged groove, this is the sound of three musicians cutting through the noise by turning it up just loud enough to drown out the world.

The lineup reads like a family band with punk ethics: Tim Gates on guitar and vocals, his son Jacob on bass, and local drumming powerhouse Elliott Kiger rounding out the trio. With Tim’s decades of influence bleeding into Jacob’s musical DNA, and Elliott’s intuitive rhythms lighting a fire under both, the album moves with the looseness of friends jamming and the urgency of people who know time is precious.

Lead track 'Chemicals' captures everything that makes this record work. It’s lean but not thin, textured without getting cluttered. There’s a tension between restraint and release, a push and pull that mirrors the record’s deeper themes of burnout, disillusionment, and escape. 'Leave the City' follows suit, uncoiling like a tightly wound spring. It’s got that Pacific Northwest DNA all over it with a relentless low end, and an outro that crashes into beautiful disarray.

There’s no heavy-handed concept here, no pretentious framing device. No Can Fly are making the kind of music they want to hear, and loud enough to shake off the dust. Influenced by the likes of Unwound, No Knife, Hot Snakes, Pavement, and Fugazi, the band build on that foundation with their own flavour of off-kilter energy and desert-born grit.

With 'Chemicals Forever,' No Can Fly open a window into a world of scorched-earth emotion and no-frills expression. It’s music made for the floorboards of indie venues, and for anyone who knows what it means to scream just to feel heard.