Fury of Five "Telling it Like it Is!" CD
[Inner Rage]
What needs to be said about this!? It's a remastered reissue of Fury of Five's long out of print second 7" from 1996 with a bonus compilation track from 1996's "Harder They Come, Harder They Fall" CD - both of which were also originally released by Inner Rage Records. Love 'em or hate 'em, this band is pretty much legendary, so deal with it. Burly vocals, huge breakdowns... this is just crushing material. "Taste the Steel" is a fucking classic, and quite possibly the best Fury of Five track ever in my opinion... "Red With Rage" is equally vicious and brings in more of their patented gang backup vocals, and then "Hell on Earth" is one of the darkest and most twisted tracks the band ever wrote. It's a lot different than their usual material. The tempo is slower, the solos are a lot more melodic and controlled, the subject matter has an apocalyptic bent, and there are even some fucked up vocal effects on occasion. Fuck yeah. "Out of Jurisdiction", the compilation track, basically sounds like shit because it's about 100 times thinner than the EP, the vocals are way too loud, and the drums have way too much of a pop to them, which is a damn shame because the song is good... but what can you do? The band's later hip-hop influences can be heard a bit in some of the vocal patterns here, but the production is pretty insufferable if you ask me. On the other hand, the recording on the stuff from the EP isn't half bad. It's flawed, of course, but it works fine for me. It's heavy as hell, there's a solid bass presence, the drums sound pretty good, etc. The vocals are a little separated from the music, but I mean, for an EP that was recorded in mid-1995 it stands up pretty well. The songs from that 7" were just fucking sick, though. That's what matters here. The CD comes in a slick glossy digipack with a new layout. The cover art is basically the same as the original 7" release, it's just in a different color. Inside is a collage of live shots and the lyrics for the three tracks from the EP, and the back cover has some recording information and that sort of thing. You should know damn well what to expect from the lyrics. These guys never fucked around. "Those who oppose, heed this demand, Walk the talk, face this man to man, Those who oppose, heed this demand, Fight one on one, face this man to man." Yeah, it's that toughguy shit, but these dudes backed it up. And I'm a sucker for it. What can I say? I'm so fucking glad the label finally put this out on CD, it's long overdue. The only thing that could have possibly made this better would have been if they were somehow able to include the songs from the first 7" and the old demos as well. But that's livin' in a dream world, so fuck it. Take what you can get... and god damnit, "Taste the Steel", motherfuckers. I love that song. (8/10)
Running time - 15:57, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: Taste the Steel, Red With Rage, Hell on Earth]
Inner Rage Records - http://innerrage.districtproductions.net

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