Review of High Anxiety (2003)

by Mick Stingley for KNAC.COM (May 29th, 2003)

Thick riffs and punk melodies from almost-superstars, Therapy? come fast and furious in the form of their latest offering, High Anxiety.

Ten years into the game haven’t mellowed this fighting Irish group: Hey Satan—You Rock, the poppy lead track, starts the punk-rocking and neck-snapping fun, which grooves along and tells St. Peter to “park my car” while storming through the gates of Heaven…

Though singer Andrew J. Cairns sounds, at times, a little like Michael Graves (late of Misfits) fronting Green Day (on the opener; and track 5, Watch You Go), it’s a welcome rich voice that supplements the punk-n-roll vibe of the band’s new CD.

… an aptly-titled album that cooks with speed and harmony ….

Who Knows brings the rock vibe to the punks, and, along with Stand In Line—catchy little rockers like might bring some new fans to the mosh pit. Nobody Here But Us, Watch You Go and Voodoo Doll bring the punk to the metal-heads with their old-school American hardcore sing-a-long choruses… but Therapy? doesn’t stay locked in any one vibe too long to bore a listener. Limbo has some funky Chili-Peppers bass. Last Blast and Rust round out the disc with straight-ahead rock—Rust riffs along with a nice Motorhead groove.

High Anxiety is an aptly-titled album that cooks with speed and harmony: the gap between Nirvana and Motorhead can be bridged with this kind of Therapy?

Comes with an enhanced DVD video for If It Kills Me.

Rating: 3/5.

Other Reviews of ‘High Anxiety’

Related Interviews