v/a "Out ta Bomb Records Sampler" compilation CD
[Out ta Bomb]
Here's a sampler of 13 tracks from 12 bands from this Japanese label that mainly focuses on heavy new school hardcore/metalcore. I'll just run down the tracks in order with a brief description of each band. Eternal B starts things off with "Card": Quick, to the point metalcore with a lot of chugging rhythms. Not bad, but nothing extraordinary. By Virtue Alone throws down some great traditional metalcore with no frills. The most interesting thing about these guys is that the band was formed in Japan by a group of Americans who were stationed there together while serving in the Navy!? Rebirth offers more solid metalcore with brutal rhythms and insanely fucked up vocal screams. The vocals can get too over the top for me at times (especially because they're mixed a bit loud and were recorded in a way that overloaded the input levels), but other than that it's tight as hell. State Craft's style is a bit more metallic and midpaced, ala All Out War with a little bit of a modern Swedish death metal twist. The vocals here are doubled and mixed too loud, so that they can definitely be distracting, which is unfortunate because the music kicks ass... straight down to the dissonant dual guitar riffing (think Slayer with a bit of melody). "At Twilight", by Birthplace, is more along the death metal lines. The recording is really weak, though. The sound is painfully thin and unbalanced, so a lot of power is lost and it's hard to gauge what they're truly capable of. Then out of nowhere comes Ninin with some melodic pop punk where the lyrics are all sung in Japanese. Not bad at all. It took me awhile to get used to the vocals, but now I really like it. This is totally the most unique band on the entire sampler based on their contrast to the heaviness of all the other contributions. New York's seminal Breakdown is up next. Need I say more? It's a great track from their most recent record that was released by Thorp Records in the US. Wiz Own Bliss is one of the best bands herein. They're heavy as shit with nice old school references and a tight recording. The rhythms are very memorable, as are the cool tradeoff vocal patterns that really fit in with the music. Killer. Up next is another song from Birthplace which is much more interesting than their other track. The production still needs work (mainly the mix) but the music is a lot more unique and the song is also more powerful. I'd toss those high-pitched shrieks, though... the midrange vocals are way better. Sorrow of Tranquility's "Fly Away" is total melodic Swedish death metal - the kind that so many metalcore bands are doing now. It's not bad, actually it's better than average in the writing department, it's just so typical at the moment... Elements 4 Upward picks up the pace big time, however, kicking out some awesome melodic hardcore with an energetic tempo and vocals that sort of fall right on the line between shouting and singing. And what can be said about District 9? "Payback" is a fucking classic from this defunct New York band that fused hip-hop and hardcore very early on in the game before it became fairly common, and they pulled it off far more convincingly... Fuck yeah. And finally we have Endzweck with "Destination": More solid melodic hardcore. The sound is too thin to really do them justice, but they obviously have a lot of talent and I really like the writing a lot. They've sort of got a less technical Shai Hulud type of vibe. For a sampler this thing is incredibly finely packaged in a matte gray digipack with the label logo and title appearing on the front cover in a rectangle of metallic gold foil. Inside the tracklist is printed in faded white ink so that you have to tilt the package into the right light to see it. There's also a tiny booklet inside that contains a full color list of all of the albums (with cover images) that these songs came from, which is a nice touch. All in all this is a solid sampler, and if nothing else I'm very pleased to have finally been able to check out some of these elusive Japanese bands, because it's next to impossible to find their CD's in the US. Hopefully that will change someday... I certainly hope so, because a lot of these bands deserve more exposure! (7/10)
Running time - 44:19, Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: By Virtue Alone, Ninin, Wiz Own Bliss, Elements 4 Upward, District 9, Endzweck]
Out ta Bomb Records - http://www.hardcore.co.jp

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