Head Hits Concrete "Hope, Fear and the Terror of Dreams" 7"
[Intolerant Messiah]
Here's some more noisy and intense grindcore from this Canadian act. "'Dead Children', He Laughed" throws out some really fucked up dissonant riffing, and "Dear Penthouse Letters" is complete and utter chaotic lunacy! I have no idea how the hell they can pull that shit off and somehow sound like they're playing in time with one another - and that seems to be the general approach for most of this EP. Tons of speed, a few slower breaks, the occasional quirky riff that jumps out of nowhere, unrelenting vocal screams... Actually, in some strange way this sort of sounds like Botch... that is if you were to take a Botch record, speed it up, run it through an overdrive pedal, and just make it more completely fucked up and twisted in general. But they have that same sort of unusual complexity going on, and they definitely have an intelligent message (albeit one that's far more interesting and amusingly handled, in my opinion). The one setback is that the production is a little bit too messy to do them justice this time out. The vocals are mixed loud, there's not a great deal of clarity in the mix, etc. Nothing sounds bad per se, they just need a little bit more room for the instruments to breathe, because the writing is so crazy that it can become a blur if they're not careful, and I think these songs would be distinctly more powerful and less similar to one another were the recording a bit crisper. The drums do seem to sound pretty damn good, though. I'll say that. The layout looks awesome. The record comes in a full color glossy sleeve with some great eye-catching imagery, and inside is a simple insert with nothing but white text over a black background. I fucking love this band's lyrics, though. The lyrics are so fucking sarcastic, but always carry an awesome message, generally a pessimistic commentary on life as we know it, but this shit is pure gold. "Need a billion dollars a day for the military? No problem! Need another billion for a war on terror? Here it is! Need a blank check to pursue an undeclared struggled with unexplained means and undefined ends? You got it! Because that's what America is all about: Just war. Whether it's war on the people of color overseas or war on our rights at home, that's what you're all about: Just war." And that's nothing, I mean, I quote could literally every song here, because they're all gems. Every single one. Awesome. Musically they're not always the most memorable band out there, but I'm really starting to get into these cats. (7/10)
Running time - 9:00 (approximately), Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: "Dead Children", He Laughed, Fucking Stinking Pile of Shit, ...Of This Divide, Stabbed at Six, News at Eleven]
Intolerant Messiah - http://www.intolerantmessiah.com

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