If you’ve been following along for any length of time, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’m almost automatically a fan of anything with huge, thick walls of guitar noise.

It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about shoegaze, space rock, post rock, blackgaze, sludge metal, or whatever brand of guitar rock Lantlôs is putting out. If the guitars are loud, fuzzy, and slathered in reverb, I’m here for it.

So naturally, as soon as I heard the new album from Lake Michigan-area outfit Cloakroom, I was here for it.

Wrung Out is the group’s first full-length, but you’d never guess it by the conviction and world-weariness that informs the songs. According to the promo materials, the record was created following a string of friends’ deaths. The album acted as a catharsis for their grief, which explains bleak despondency and deep anger that runs through the disc.

The album plays out like the late nights spent processing tragedies that are too big to understand. It feels like raging into the sky and punching through walls and sitting in an alley when you can’t cry anymore. You can almost see them drowning the pain in cheap beer and ranting about how everything is just bullshit.

They’re scenes we’re all familiar with. I’ve seen them play out hundreds of times after breakups, divorces, and deaths of friends.

And Wrung Out is a fitting soundtrack for that grief. From the menacing urgency of “Keep Me Under” to the angular asymmetry of “Gaze” to the crushing bleakness of the closer “Unending,” every moment is put devastating.

And it has the sonic palette to match. Though Lume is a three-piece and there are few overdubs, the sound is entirely massive. The bass guitar is gritty and overdriven, holding down the low end while the guitars squelch through reverb and feedback. The drums play with urgency, even through the lower sections. He often taps out in double time on the snare’s rim, which gives a more restless energy than most other plodding, guitar-heavy groups.

Which brings me to a note about genre tags, and how useless they can be. Lume is on Equal Vision, a noted emo and post hardcore label. On their own Bandcamp, you can find the tags “post rock,” “slowcore,” “desert rock,” and “post grunge.” While these might all be apt descriptors, there’s little about this record that reminds me of bands like Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Kyuss, or Alice in Chains. Many other reviews keep mentioning Nirvana, which I don’t see at all, besides following the same rough archetype of quiet verse/loud chorus (which is just about every alternative band, isn’t it?)

Soundwise, it brings to mind doom acts like True Widow, O’Brother (whose guitarist is featured on a couple tracks) as well as alternative heroes HUM. Moodwise, it’s very much in line with bands like Thrice and Brand New.

But regardless of genre taxonomy, the fact remains that Wrung Out is heavy as all get out. A singular vision that is as crushing sonically as it is lyrically.