Skarp "Bury Your Dead" CD
[Inimical]
Here's some female fronted crust/grind with a wide range of tempos from blasting beats and tremolo picking to thick and sludgy rhythms. "Soulless" drops an absolutely crushing breakdown; "Fuck TBN" has a sludgy, almost southern sort of flare at times, as well as some sick dissonant note combinations; "Reclaim" has some more punk influences and faster, almost crossover styled vocals that aren't as aggressive; "Human Tragedy" starts out with some brutal doom influences, but then unloads some terrible fucking ska parts that have no place on this otherwise strong record - I have no clue what the hell they were thinking there. "The 'F' is for Fuck You" is one of my favorite tracks, a mere 48 seconds that starts with a killer midpaced rhythm and closes in the tradition of early Napalm Death with raging grind and cackled vocals. They cover "Time to Act" by Nasum as well, which surprised me... good choice, though. The recording's alright, but it needs something more... probably a heavier guitar tone? I don't know, the bass is so thick that it gets lost, and everything else sounds okay, it just comes off as a little thin. It needs more force back there. I really like the cover art, or at least the style and the colors of it (the subject matter could be better), but the rest of the layout is all in black and white and looks a little pasted together by comparison. The lyrics combine personal issues with more of a message and tackles topics such as sexism, blind patriotism as it relates to war, religion, etc. "I refuse these expectations, I refuse these roles you gave me, I refuse this way of life, I refuse this social stagnation..." One frustrating aspect is that there's no tracklist, and the lyrics are out of order in the booklet, so it can be a pain to figure out which song is which. Overall this is damn promising. There are some weak points/tracks, but when they rage, they fucking rage. Worth checking out. It would've been better as an EP featuring the best tracks, but... watch out for this band. (6/10)
Running time - 28:00 (approximately), Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: The "F" is for Fuck You, Untitled, Bury Your Dead]
Inimical Records - http://www.inimical.com

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