BY CARRAH BECHTEL
This Gainsville, Florida hard rock act is finally back after a long eight-year break. The end result is the much-anticipated Exister, a full-throttle, honest album driven by Chuck Ragan’s earthy voice and the band’s tight guitar rhythms. The progress and maturity displayed on this record as compared with earlier output from the band’s inception 20 years ago is not only plainly audible, but inescapably palpable. They’ve maintained their authentic punk base but have built a more cohesive sound around it — encapsulating it within a hard enough edge so there’s no chance of getting them confused with simple rock and rollers. Old fans will relish the new flavor; new fans will hunger for more.
