Unreal City “Ephemeral Subsistence” CD

"Ephemeral Subsistence" is the debut full-length from Pittsburgh, PA's Unreal City (on Double or Nothing Records), and leading up to its release much ado was made in the promotional blurbs that the album was "recorded at the legendary Mars Studio with producer Bill Korecky". And just let me tell you: I fucking love that fact! Seriously, a few months before I learned of this band/release I was thinking to myself what a god damn shame it is that Mars-produced hardcore seems to be a pretty rare find these days, and this album proves without a shred of doubt that more of these Clevo-worshipping cats need to fork over the dough for a road trip to the studio where so many of the classics were birthed. One of the songs from this album happened to hit my ears via shuffle play the other day and before the vocals kicked in I actually thought it was a track from In Cold Blood's "Hell on Earth" album. The production's that damn good. Of course, the band's penchant for Cleveland-esque chord progressions and scorching solos that owe much more than a passing nod to Aaron Melnick had a hell of a lot to do with that as well, but... that's what I'm saying: All the more reason to hit up Mars to get the job done right! And unoriginal or not, in 2008 I am not gonna fucking complain about a band that's basically using "Those Who Fear Tomorrow" as their blueprint—especially if they're coming pretty damn close to nailing it, you know? Obviously the lyrical content's not at the Dwid level, and it's unfair to expect any band to match the songwriting power of early Integrity, but... this is an extremely solid album that should totally hit the spot for fans of the Cleveland sound, and I'll certainly look forward to hearing more from Unreal City.

Unreal City "Beyond Reality"

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, my copy of the CD is defective in that the 10th track, "Altus Proditio", goes blank for the last minute or so of the song. You can even look at the bottom of the disc and see a small "gap" in the data. Very strange. Since I see no mention of this from the band or label anywhere online, my first assumption would be that they got a batch of mildly defective CD's and decided to use them as promos (which happens from time to time and makes perfect sense). However, I find it odd that "Altus Proditio" is the only song on the band's MySpace page that contains a link to purchase the mp3 via Amazon.com. Coincidentally, I did purchase said mp3 from Amazon (it's the #1 selling mp3 of the band's, by the way), and it's fine. No errors. But... this does make me a smidge concerned that perhaps the entire first run of CD's contains this defect? Maybe someone in the know will post a comment here and provide some real insight?

That being said, it appears that the CD's still available from the label for just $5, which is a great fuckin' deal, so...

Get It

Double or Nothing Records (CD)
Amazon.com (mp3)
iTunes (mp3)