Given their name, it's appropriate that San Francisco's Spiritual Cramp have a sound rooted in the punk rock of 40-ish years ago. I don't think debut EP Mass Hysteria would have the same punch had it featured a more aggressive approach. Alienation figures prominently in the lyrics of opener “All MY Friends Are Out Tonight (Alright),” and the somewhat vulnerable, almost goth punk vocal delivery continues in second track “Tenderloin.” With a wailing police siren just under the instrumental parts and lyrics discussing the surprise of randomly finding a gun on the street, this track perhaps best captures the EP's unsettling vibe. Comparatively commanding vocals take the stage in the more uptempo “Wrecking Machine,” and the EP finishes up with a track in “The Ice Age isn't Fucking Coming” where hypnotic main vocals are complimented by a heavily distorted secondary part which makes lines like “Violence keeps me warm at night” all the more immediate. It's no coincidence that the last thing heard on the record is audio from a police bust; rather, it's just the icing on the cake of a release in which feelings of paranoia and general unease exist right below the surface.
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