’90s-era Long Island hardcore band Cleanser uploaded their 1997 debut album Grime to streaming services last year, after their planned 25th anniversary reunion show was cancelled due to lockdown, and now they’ve put its even-harder-to-track-down followup Monster… with Eyes of a Boy up on streaming too. They pressed an initial run of about 200 copies before their label went under and the band broke up in 1998, and sold some copies at their “final” (pre-reunion) show in April of that year and that was it. It’s got guest vocals on two songs from LIHC veteran turned comedian Neil Rubenstein (who at the time was fronting the Glassjaw-related Sons of Abraham). If you’ve never heard this album but you’re into ’90s Long Island hardcore, post-hardcore, and metalcore, it’ll feel like a lost gem. Listen below.
Cleanser did finally end up playing post-lockdown; they just played the extremely ’90s LIHC gig at Brooklyn Monarch on Saturday (12/1) with Silent Majority, Indecision, Mind Over Matter, Milhouse, and CR. Check out videos and our recap here.
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