Cursed "Two" CD
[Goodfellow]
God damn, another destructive full-length from these Canadians. I'm sure the ex-member pedigree is common knowledge at this point, so I'm not going there. What you're in for here is a little over a half-hour of absolutely churning hardcore/punk that ranges from sickeningly heavy and midpaced to faster and more grindingly dissonant, plus a few slightly more rocked out little tinges reminiscent of Entombed's earlier forays into the "death 'n' roll" style. I can't help but compare the base of their sound to the His Hero is Gone style as a general reference point, with the vocals falling more towards a midrange scream, though the music tends to gravitate towards open influences rather than mere hints. A less sinister hardcore backbone is in place, with more openly metallic rhythms abundant, and some of the rock-tinged playing definitely rocks in full form (but nothing so direct that it doesn't fit or loses the massive impact of their pounding aesthetic). "Reparations" is largely slower and darker with some excellent musical dissonance and more texture to the vocal delivery (among the most ominous of the songs), which returns a bit in the thicker and more rhythmic "Head of the Baptist"; "The Void" is among the longer tracks and combines driving speeds with some brighter lead riffing and note bends that add more of a caustic bite; "Old Money" is a succinct two minutes with catchier tempos and a real sense of energy to the subtle melody of its thick power chords; and "Model Home Invasion" hits seven fucking minutes, remaining slow with a damn well Sabbath-esque groove that comes totally out of fucking nowhere and kicks some serious ass, complete with shifts between whispered vocals and the vicious screams. I have zero complaints about the recording. Everything totally crushes. The guitars are ridiculously thick and overloaded with burly yet fittingly dirty distortion, the bass is a little gritty but forces its way into the open at the seams, the drums sound really strong, and the vocals are dead on. Everything blends very cohesively in the mix without coming off as muddy and all that. No problems. The disc comes in a fairly nice looking digiack that's all done in shades of black and faint gray. Some of the text is black on black, and therefore hard as hell to read, so it might have worked better as a gloss overlay or something. Even the gray on black text is a pain in the ass on the eyes though, so it could've been handled a bit better (unless they wanted it to be hard to read). The cover looks quite similar to something used by Danzig in the past, but that's another matter, heh. Lyrically the material very distinctly revolves around the current political climate of the world at the hands of the US, with war, the political lies surrounding war, and other such topics making repeat appearances. "Someone turn the lights on. Got an old and sinking feeling that the wolves are at my doorstep. And always have been. Someone turn the lights on. Turn the lights on..." I'm all over this one. This is definitely a stronger and more consistently pummeling record than their debut. If you liked "One", get this, kids. And if not? Try again! (8/10)
Running time - 34:20, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Reparations, The Void, Old Money, Model Home Invasion]
Goodfellow Records - http://www.goodfellowrecords.com

This review has been displayed 4987 times.