For the Worse "The Chaos Continues" CD
[Bridge Nine]
Damn, this is way different than most everything else on the Bridge Nine roster. Definitely a hardcore/punk release, but more towards early hardcore and furious punk rock with rock 'n' roll overtones, using a few dirty little lead riffs, roaming basslines, and bitter vocal yells that have a ton of attitude (somewhere in between John Joseph on "The Age of Quarrel", early Agnostic Front, and the faster vocal patterns of 80's west coast crossover thrash). There's definitely a driving force of moderately fast power chords and straightforward song structures here, but the uniqueness of the vocals adds a ton of character to the music, and there's a little crossover thread running through some of the music too. I really like this. It's energetic and pissed off without losing any momentum or getting stale. Hell, most songs run around a minute and they blaze through 18 tracks in a little over 20 minutes. "Chaos Continues" opens the floodgates right away with a raging tempo, "Stuck in My Head" hits on a California breed of sarcasm and totally kills, "Catholic Guilt" pulls no punches lyrically, "Oi! The Joke" is slower and has some conversational spoken banter in it that reminds me of early tracks from Minor Threat or Black Flag, "Guest of Honor" is a driving and in your face hardcore/punk force, etc. Any band that can start a song by yelling, "Shit out of luck, you bastards!" has something going for 'em. It takes a special brand of band to pull that off, you know what I mean? The recording is a good blend of a dated approach with modern force. So it's loud and punchy with plenty of low-end presence, while still retaining a degree of clarity over its dirty distortion textures, placing the vocals pretty deep in the mix oftentimes. The vocals really make this band for me, it's awesome. The layout uses nothing but dirty high contrast images of the band in red and orange, often with a collaged effect, and the lyrics are inside over a white torn paper background for easier legibility. I think it looks a little bland as a whole, though oddly the back cover is far cooler than anything else!? As far as the lyrics go, things are a little different from the norm, at times taking on the usual topics with added bitterness and light sarcasm that I find to be fucking awesome. Take for instance lines like, "Shoot everyone in the face involved with the catholic church," or, "I thought it was Boston and not LA, Trendy fucks with nothing to say, Chaos and anger it's all in the past, Now you sit around with your thumbs up your ass..." Priceless. This is a killer disc. It's nice to see Bridge Nine branching out a little (but not too far), and this band definitely has a special something about them that you don't get so often these days. Check 'em out, I expect to start hearing a lot more talk about these guys. (7/10)
Running time - 20:38, Tracks: 18
[Notable tracks: Chaos Continues, Stuck in My Head, Shit Out of Luck, Catholic Guilt, You Put the SS in Boss, Guest of Honor]
Bridge Nine Records - http://www.bridge9.com

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