In the 1980s, once punk rock had been around long enough that some important bands had made their third and fourth albums, it became common that the longer the group had been around, the less straightforwardly "punk" they sounded -- after a few years of writing and playing their songs, the less they wanted to stick to a no-frills 4/4 stomp. Having formed in 2005, Screaming Females musically came of age long after this was commonplace, and on their eighth studio album, 2023s Desire Pathway, theyve matured past the edgy ferocity of their earliest material into a group who have come to master hard rock with smart accents of pop, metal, and classic rock, but without losing touch with the no-B.S. mindset they embraced in their formative years. Working with producer Matt Bayles (who also worked on 2015s Rose Mountain and 2018s All at Once), Desire Pathway sounds rich and full-bodied, boasting a sonic punch that flatters the report of bassist Michael Abbate and drummer Jarrett Dougherty, as well as a clarity reinforcing the potent bark of Marissa Paternosters guitar and the declarative force of her vocals. Desire Pathway is a great-sounding album, and Paternoster and her bandmates have given us a set of songs worthy of this level of technique. She reportedly wrote these songs in the wake of a difficult romantic breakup, and the pain and anger that comes from such an experience is audible in the lyrics, along with flashes of the liberation that comes with suddenly being out on your own. If she occasionally sounds wounded in her performances, she never sounds weak, speaking from the mind as clearly as from the heart. The yin and yang of the crunchy rhythms and soaring leads of "Let Me into Your Heart," the spare guitar and vocal intimacy of "So Low," the hard-hitting stutter-step of "Brass Bell," the strutting hard rock of "Titan," and the doomy grace of "Beyond the Void" all speak of her emotional progress as clearly as the lyric sheet. Paternoster is as good a guitarist as anyone in indie rock, unconcerned with flash for its own sake but clearly possessing the intelligence and the technique to make her ideas connect brilliantly, and in Abbate and Dougherty she has a rhythm section that helps strengthen and refine the arrangements. If Paternoster is the star of this show, Screaming Females is a band in the best sense of the word, and the interaction between the musicians is the work of artists whove gotten better at playing and listening after a couple of decades in action. Desire Pathway may not sound like punk rock to some, but its punk in all the ways that matter most: Its brave, smart, honest, and expressive -- an uncompromised vision from musicians with something to say and the means to say it. Its another triumph from one of the finest, most satisfying bands in the indie underground. ~ Mark Deming

Rovi