Genuine "Bury the Hatchet: The Complete Genuine Discography" CD
[State of Grace]
This discography collects all of the recorded material from what is basically a one-man straightedge project from Aaron Edge (Anonymous, Christ, Grip, Harkonen, Himsa, and Structure Twentyfour, among others) with help from other musicians and guest vocalists at times. Included are the tracks from the "A Bond Still Strong" one-sided 12" (Excursion Records), "The Pessimist Project" EP (Temperance Records), the "I'll Be Damned" sessions (intended for a third record but never released), and some untitled demo tracks from 1997 that were never released. A lot of this stuff definitely has that mid-90's west cost metallic hardcore sort of vibe going on (think Undertow, Unbroken, that sort of thing) with a good, even mix of metal and hardcore that possesses a lot of feeling and power, as well as a few dashes of melody and dissonance. Various vocalists contribute varying degrees of screaming and shouting, so it gets mixed up nicely. Among the standouts, "Shattered and Shine" is much more rhythmic and bass driven than the other songs, while "NWHC" is short and fast as shit, with a thrashy crossover sort of vibe going on, which is a lot different than the majority of the other tracks. A couple of the songs, like "The Sinking Of" and "Paper Cut" for example, are quirkier and more rocked out, with some noisier guitar parts and textures going on, and the demo tracks are slower and a lot darker than most of the other material, so this is definitely diverse work. I like the recordings. The basslines tend to be very prevalent in the mix and add a lot of energy to the tracks, the drum always sound natural, the guitars tend to be pretty heavy but still clear, and the vocals sound fine. At times I'd like to hear more low-end in the mix, and sometimes the vocals stray out front a little, but overall this stuff stands the test of time very well. The rocked out tracks have a thinner guitar sound that I'm not that fond of but the writing is still strong. The same goes for the unreleased demo tracks, which are definitely really raw, but still pretty damn interesting. The layout is fucking awesome, using dark brown ink overlapped by metallic bronze ink over thin cream colored paper to create some interesting layering effects. All of the lyrics are included, as are some liner notes about the band's inception and what happened between then and now. The lyrics come from some of the contributing vocalists as well as Aaron Edge, but they all tend to deal with relatively typical hardcore issues of commitment and staying true, friendship, etc. "You say 'bring it back', I say it never ends, If it slips away, Then you fuckin' let it go, You remember those days, I still live them out..." I had never heard this band before for whatever reason, but this is a solid release. In my opinion it's practically worth it for the first 13 songs alone, but nothing herein is bad if you ask me. (7/10)
Running time - 45:00 (approximately), Tracks: 27
[Notable tracks: Shattered and Shine, Forced, Reduced Half Size, Paper Cut, Take, Forget, untitled demo track #4]
State of Grace - http://www.stateofgracehc.com

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