Young Legionnaire's raucous Zero Worship shines in its quietest moments

Comprised of members of Bloc Party and The Automatic, Young Legionnaire come with a high pedigree, but too often they substitute playing loudly for a sense of real urgency. Opener “Balaclava” is perhaps the album’s best track, a bass and drum powered blast of nervous energy that recalls The Hotelier. “There Will Be an Escape Hatch” is similarly poignant, though it can’t resist veering histrionic towards the conclusion.

Elsewhere, the band’s heavier tracks don’t offer much especially new and do little besides provide a satisfyingly angry backdrop with chords and drums pushed to their EQ breaking point. “Sawn-Off Shotgun” is grating and grueling; “Candidate” is frenzied and frenetic but hardly a captivating listen.

Gordon Moakes left Bloc Party in 2015 to focus on Young Legionnaire, but this band still feels like a side project, a group of talented musicians with stable day jobs getting together to let all the misery out and wail on the guitar until their fingers are numb. Perhaps they have a great record in them down the road, but for now Young Legionnaire’s music remains an embodiment of angst too widely focused to be truly captivating.