Kegcharge "Sadistic War Glory" CD
[Hardcore Holocaust]
Holy shit... this is current and former members of World Burns to Death cranking out nine quick tracks of viciously raw hardcore/punk. Stylistically I guess it is pretty typical D-beat or whatever, but the actual character of the recording definitely gives this a far different vibe from most of what's out there. It sounds like it was recorded live in the studio, and it may very well have been in large part. The drums are far off in the distance, the guitars and bass are full of grating distortion and rest right in the center sort of fighting for space, and the vocals are lightly filtered and lean forward just a touch out front. The bass tone is awesome and really plays a large role, and I like that a lot. The drums sound cool too, there's just something nice about the really distant bashing sound they've got going on. Writing-wise the material does sound pretty similar throughout, largely based around simple power chord rhythms and mildly fast tempos that crunch right along, with a few of the tracks using a surprising amount of samples (amusingly spliced George W. Bush dialogue, gunfire and other such sounds of war, etc.). "God, Where Are You" and "Medal of Honor" have a little bit of a gritty Motörhead thing going on with a few quick rock tinged riffs (the latter also throwing in a quick lead run), "Sound the Charge" ups the vocal distortion for a more intense attack that gets a little more pounding overall, and "In Media Res" is straight to the point but ever so slightly heavier in delivery. The layout keeps it pretty simple with the band stealing the ever popular Discharge lettering style for their logo and using some old apocalyptic paintings for artwork. The cover fuses such images with an old black and white photo from a Nazi rally and makes for a pretty vicious cover that could quite easily be mistaken for an actual white power band's artwork by someone who didn't know any better. As the record's title would suggest the lyrics deal almost exclusively with war, but the lyrics are succinct and brutal as fuck: "Another ghoulish caption in the chronicles of war, Bodies burned black, Arms detached, Military power, Cities to ash, Sound the charge... off to war." Good stuff. This is one pissed off slab of material right here. It's pretty blatantly over the top in some respects, but in a good way, so this is definitely pretty strong for what I'd wager is a band that's sort of being kicked around for fun (though not without a message, of course). (7/10)
Running time - 17:23, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Blood - Mix - Oil, Sound the Charge, In Media Res]
Hardcore Holocaust - http://www.hardcoreholocaust.com

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