LIGHT PUPIL DILATE 'Snake Wine' (Lifeforce) RATING: 6/10 Buy now

By RYAN MAVITY

Listening to Snake Wine, the newest album by Light Pupil Dilate, I realized this is a band that would have fit right in at the old HFStivals in the mid-‘90s. I can see them right now on the main stage, probably somewhere between Jawbox and Soul Asylum, maybe right after Shudder to Think and before P.J. Harvey. That’s about right.

If you aren’t native to the Baltimore-D.C. area and don’t what I’m talking about, Snake Wine mixes two genres that the HFStival used to be full of in those days: D.C. punk and grunge-flavored alt rock. This is a band I probably would have liked in high school before I discovered Motorhead and Slayer. No doubt Light Pupil Dilate does what it does very well. The band is tight and guitarist Eric Searle lends texture and finesse to the rock crunch of bassist Mike Chvasta and drummer Michael Green. Some tracks like “Selfless” and the punky “Twinkly” stand out, as does the metal-flavored “Shower Me with Your Love,” with its off-kilter sound. The six-minute closer, “Dive,” is also a solid track, with its trippy drum and bass lines.

But there is something passé about this album. This is the sort of stuff second stage HFStival bands were bashing out 10 years ago, and while the band members are capable players, their style just doesn’t feel fresh. Snake Wine isn’t necessarily a bad album, just not one you thought you would hear again.