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Quarantine: Exile 12” (Damage United Records) One of my favorite contemporary hardcore bands, Philadelphia’s Quarantine, returns with their second 12”. Quarantine emerged as such a fully formed beast that it shouldn’t be surprising that not much has changed between Agony and Exile. Quarantine’s music is still firmly rooted in blistering 80s hardcore like Negative Approach, Agnostic Front, and Jerry’s Kids, but played by musicians much more seasoned and technically capable than the ones who made those early 80s records. Quarantine takes the unpredictable lunges of Victim in Pain and hones them to samurai blade sharpness, the sound anchored by virtuoso drummer Chris Ulsh, whose playing has a downright supernatural combination of deftness and power. The main difference I hear between Exile and its predecessor is that, this time around, there are fewer of the psychedelic-sounding, United Mutation-esque lead guitar parts I loved on Agony, with the guitars joining the rhythm section in their single-minded pursuit of relentlessness. Jock also remains a larger-than-life frontperson on Exile, his bark creeping in and out of legibility, rendering his bleak lyrics even darker and stranger. The between-song instrumental interludes also return, ranging from maximalist industrial to a creepy and minimal electro-acoustic-style piece. If Agony and Exile are the first two installments in an Out Cold-style discography that keeps going and going with no letup, that would be fine by me.