Press

“…drops a sonic a-bomb on capitalism… The dynamic shifts between sonic discord and fractured melodies, as the songs pour out in monolithic emotional cascades and USOT’s unfiltered passion bears down, sometimes threatening to break the listener.”
— Onion AV Club

“…leads their ongoing saga of revolution into dark new territory. It’s an important statement about the relationship between revolution and personal transformation, released at just the right moment for Wisconsin. But the music is what brings this message into gory, horrifying color.”
— Isthmus

“…working class noise rock from the protest ravaged state of Wisconsin. This is music born of revolution and rebellion; violating the sanctity of Old Money and ‘play-it-safe’ rock music.”
— Kickherteathin

“You’d have to beat Unwound up, then train them to box to get the sound tough enough. …superlative dissonant complex post-hardcore/Math/Sludge/skronk, on par with Quicksand.”
— How Much Longer Must We Tolerate Mass Culture

“The United Sons Of Toil pretty much instantly became one of the best bands in Madison with the 2007 release of Hope Is Not A Strategy, their first album of austere-yet-epic math rock paired with excoriating leftist screams on behalf of the proletariat. The trio followed up nicely with last year’s Until Lions Have Their Historians, Tales Of The Hunt Shall Always Glorify The Hunter — but 2009-2010 might be its best period yet. This year found the band playing more shows in town, taking a short Midwestern tour, and debuting more songs for a third record, all while keeping up the earnest live intensity and supremely violent sonics that a small but dedicated crowd of local Toil fans have grown to love.”
— Onion AV Club

“The songs are driving and anxious, with harsh melodies and noisy splashes of feedback interspersed between technical start-stops. If you were to dig through the record collection of the United Sons of Toil it would probably feature Jawbox and Fugazi prominently, with some representation from Big Black, Mclusky and the Kill Rock Stars catalogue. …some pretty killer off-the-beaten-path punk rock. …introducing their own noisy, stressed-out take on math rock conventions.”
— Exclaim!

“…a harsh, big-sounding math-rock album obsessed with imperialism, exploitation, and genocide. …it hovers, shudders, and wrangles massive volume with such precision…”
— Onion AV Club

“…a more aggressive Unwound, giving a sort of mathy post-punk vibe with some hints of chaos thanks to a seemingly heavy influence from the Touch and Go noise-rock movement. Guitarist Russell Hall wields distortion like Neil Young gone post-hardcore.” — Scene Point Blank

“…stemming together various aspects of the past mid-western math-rock elite and the fleshed out noise-rock style of Unwound.”
— Built On A Weak Spot

“Mixing Dillinger Four attitude with some elements of Refused and early At the DriveIn…” — Decoy Music

“Explosive, violent and for the most part terrifically precise… This tough, neo-noise rock harks back to a superannuated Rust Belt world of drop forges and blast furnaces with every angry, chopping chord and sharp, pile-driving beat. …a fascination with the cerebral aggression of old-school noise stars like Big Black and Tar is obvious, but there’s also more than a hint of breathless ’80s hardcore here. Looking for a musical analog of your favorite Howard Zinn tome? This is it.” — Isthmus