Dasher comes on strong with ‘Sodium’

The pride of Bloomington, Indiana, and Atlanta, Georgia, expat, Kylee Kimbrough was on the rise in late 2014, having just wrapped the recording sessions for what was to be her debut album with post-punk outfit Dasher. She’d signed on with indie label powerhouse Jagjaguwar Records and the path to all-out musical supremacy seemed to be unfolding before her.

Then, without warning, the band dissolved seemingly overnight. Singer, drummer and principle songwriter Kimbrough vacated Atlanta to settle into Bloomington’s Midwestern college town digs. Over the last three years, she’s rebuilt Dasher from the ground up by putting a new lineup in place, recording a new batch of songs with Jason Kingsland (who’s recorded and mixed with everyone from Big K.R.I.T. to Deerhunter to Band of Horses) and handed the songs over to Bob Weston of Shellac fame for mastering. The long-awaited Sodium LP arrived July 14, and, through it all, if one thing has become increasingly clear it’s that Kimbrough doesn’t quit.

Sodium is an unrelenting 11-track vortex loaded with Kimbrough’s harshly sung vocals and brutal pounding, guitarist David Michaud’s raging sonic assaults and Rob Sarabia’s fuzz-drenched bass (for the current tour the lineup features Gary Marra on bass and Derek McCain on guitar). The energy is unwavering as each song bleeds directly into the next, with waves of thrashing delay and echo effects that evoke the squelching feedback and searing blasts of Japanese hardcore antagonists G.I.S.M. and Gauze, and the pulsating metallic punk melancholy of Killing Joke.

Opening number “We Know So“ catapults the music into a cavernous sonic terrain that envelopes Sodium with incendiary force, growing deeper and more caustic with songs such as “Soviet,” “Resume” and the harrowing and howling “Teeth” before pummeling into the anxiety-ridden title track. The album’s center piece comes complete with jutting bass, minimal rhythmic drumming and sharp guitar melodies pushing forward at extreme velocity from beginning to end. Dasher throttles back full force as it disseminates into nihilistic rager “Go Rambo,” with its enraged harmonics and sing-along chorus. The album continues in a combustible whirlwind of noise, hardcore and grunge with constant and unremitting miasma as heard through songs such as “Eye See,” “Trespass” and “Slugg.”

The album shifts gears in the climatic and unforgiving “No Guilt.” Kimbrough’s guttural vocals are backed by irresistible guitar hooks wrapped in twisting noise, grinding bass and her signature post-punk drumming. She dives headlong into the album’s final track “Get so Low,” rekindling the album’s upbeat spirits and jumpstarting Sodium’s ferocity all over again. ★★★★☆

Dasher plays the Earl on Sun., Aug. 6. With Hyena, Nurse and Nag. $10. 8 p.m. 488 Flat Shoals Ave. S.E. 404-522-3950. www.badearl.com.