v/a "From the Mean Streets - Salt Lake City Hardcore" compilation CD
[Resolve]
As the title would suggest, this is a collection of two tracks each from nine different Salt Lake City bands, many (if not all) of whom are straightedge. Cherem kicks it off and aside from some major tuning problems between the guitars and the bass (causing a lot of unnecessary dissonance that clashes and makes the songs sound sloppier than they are) they're potentially decent chugga chugga styled metalcore with abrasive midrange growling/screaming vocals. "One More Day" has some subtly discordant chords that really add a different edge to the track and stand out (in a good way). Parallax is more metallic and breaks off some searing screams, but the recording is really flimsy and they also have some problems with tuning (more lethal here since they rip off tons of little guitar harmonies). They have some good riffs that border on the chaotic by blending some pseudo technical discordance with straight mosh parts, but the songs are way too fucking long and get stale quickly. Aftermath of a Trainwreck is nothing but burly mosh with some ridiculously thick, heavy chords played on the slower side of midpaced - sort of like Neglect meets Fury of Five or something, but slower, darker, with a lot of groove, and using sick vocals that are slightly distorted. Not bad. The recording is too muddy and the songs are a little too slow for their own good, but this could be good stuff. Minion has that super defined, plunky bass tone that was so popular with some of the more metallic bands of the 90's, so it's no surprise that they sound more like a groovy east coast death metal band than a hardcore band. Complete with chugging breakdowns, pinch harmonics, growling vocals, and all that jazz. It's pretty boring but they do have some "slamming rhythms" happening if you're into that stuff. I could probably get into some of it if they sped up the moshy stuff and had a recording that didn't sound so weak and hollowed out in the mix. Bring it Down suffers from a rugged sound, but that doesn't hinder their straightforward brand of metallic hardcore from showing itself as definitely having potential. They're heavy, but their style is definitely the most hardcore based of any of these bands. "Never Die" is a fucking brutal track. I'm into it. 78 Days After Death is basically trying to be a Scandinavian black/death metal band except that they throw in some of those mosh breaks out of nowhere amidst slightly melodic tremolo picking and sneering vocals. Go figure. I'll pass, the recording is way too muddy and raw and the songs are sort of haphazardly pieced together... the breakdowns sound forced. Grace From Gallows is similar across the board: Shitty recording, weak Swedish sounding tremolo picking riffs, etc. The difference being that their performances are sloppy as hell, none of the riffs are the least bit memorable, etc. Time Bomb has a totally different sound from the other bands with vocals that have a weird sort of crossover/punk thing going on, but the music is still sort of slow and chunky... really strange. I don't really like it, but it has its moments. Truth be Told closes much the way Cherem opened up with relatively midpaced, simple metalcore that's heavy on the metal but never really strays too far from the mosh. They throw in some faster metal riffing and whatnot, but nothing out of the ordinary... and it's not as good as Cherem either. The layout's so-so. I like the fact that the booklet includes all of the band logos, plus a photo and contact information for every contributing act, and it doesn't look bad... but it does seem a little off. I don't know, maybe a little jumbled. I'm not big on photos of kids dancing or whatever, and the use of those photos as backgrounds against the collage of flyers is sort of busy looking. The end result? Well, in all honesty most of these bands suck and there's really no need for them to go any further. Bring it Down is really good and deserves a better recording, Aftermath of a Trainwreck is alright and could be pretty destructive under better circumstances, and Cherem needs to keep practicing to reach their full potential. One or two of the other bands have their moments but aren't worth writing home about, and the rest is garbage. (4/10)
Running time - 69:35, Tracks: 18
[Notable tracks: Cherem, Aftermath of a Trainwreck, Bring it Down]
Resolve Records, P.O. Box 2062, Salt lake City, UT 84110

This review has been displayed 2756 times.