v/a "No Hold Back... All Attack!!!" compilation 2xCD
[various]
I reviewed this a few months ago, but this is the double CD version (as opposed to the triple LP edition), so... I'll repeat how good this is. The release, which was put together by various bands and labels (manufactured and distributed by Havoc Records), is cited as "a D.I.Y. scene release documenting Twin Cities hardcorepunkrock&roll", and document the Twin Cities scene it does. You'll find everything here from garage rock and old school hardcore to blazing metallic hardcore (heavy on the metal) and crust punk. As a simple example of the diversity, look at the first four tracks: First, things start out with a fucking hilarious hip-hop track by the 1-2-Go! Crew, but as goofy as it is, they've got that shit dead on... totally perfect, I'd love to hear an LP of this stuff. Then it's a rocked out, catchy punk track from A-Bomb Nation. Next is some blistering metalcore with vicious vocal screams and some nice melodic guitar work from A Summary Execution. And after that is some raw but memorable garage rock styled action from The American Monsters... All by default! The bands appear in alphabetical order, so it's not like they arranged this thing so that all of this diversity would be apparent from the start, it just happened that way! That's definitely the sign of an interesting compilation, for sure. That's how things continue as well. Bodies Lay Broken even kicks out some ripping death/grind, which was recorded live in the studio and doesn't sound half bad considering. Creeping Charlie offers up an amusing and insanely brief track (which basically amounts to a grunt) called "Anal Cunt is My Favorite Straightedge Hardcore Band". Ignoranus displays some promising and diverse hardcore with a lot of original elements and dynamic shifts, including the use of violins as well as a slew of tempo changes and some powerful dirge-like passages. Martyr A.D.'s track is far more technical and diverse than what I remember hearing from them in the past, but there's still some brutal groove going on as well. Path of Destruction kicks out some straightforward hardcore/punk with good tempo changes, memorable riffing, a dark edge, and forceful vocals. Provoked plays surprisingly energetic hardcore/punk with killer female vocals and a little bit of a crust sound - I'd definitely like to hear more from them. Red Vendetta, which I assume from the illustration in the booklet is an all female band, is one of the poppier punk acts herein, but they rule, and they're not poppy in a super polished, goofy way... it's just catchy and really gets stuck in your head. Great stuff. Season of Fire is one of the more creative metalcore bands participating here, with scathing vocal screams (from ex-Harvest/Krakatoa frontman Dave Walker) and some nice odd timed riffing with a slight dose of dissonant melody. It's jut a demo recording of the track so the sound isn't full enough, but it's a great song. Seconds Before is one of the only emo/indie bands on this bad boy, but whenever Carl Skildum (ex-Threadbare/Krakatoa/etc. guitarist) is involved you know you're in for something remotely interesting, because that dude writes riffs like no other. Too Pure to Die unloads some fucking heavy as hell metalcore with tons of vicious breakdowns and chugging power chord fury. Awesome. I can't believe I haven't heard anything about this band yet. That's just a quick rundown of some of the variety you'll find here, I mean, shit, there are 54 different bands spread out across these two CD's for over two hours, and some of the bands I didn't mention still appear in fine form (Calloused, Misery, International Robot, and then some). Oddly enough most of these bands have solid recordings, too. Of course many of the tracks are a little bit raw or may occasionally be mixed a bit unevenly, but few of the songs are held back by sound quality, which is rarely the case with compilations. In fact, in most cases 50% of the bands on any given comp will suck simply because they don't have a good sound working for them. Not so with this one, so chalk up another mark in favor of this impressive set. The two CD's come in a nice gatefold digipack with blue and brown printing (simple text and images of planes dropping bombs on cityscapes). Mounted to the center panel of the digipack is a mammoth CD booklet that designates one page for each band to display artwork, contact information, lyrics, or whatever else they may care to include. Very cool, even if it is sort of hard to flip through due to the mounting. And they're selling this thing for cheap as shit too, $12ppd in the US for fucking two whole CD's... You can't beat that price, so I would definitely recommend checking this collection out, because there are a lot of great bands on this thing, many of which you're probably not familiar with (I know I hadn't heard of most of these bands before). Good work. It's very rare for a compilation, much less a compilation of this size and scope, to be so strong throughout. There are very few tracks herein that I actually dislike. I know that some of these songs appear on other releases, so I'm not sure if many of these tracks are exclusive, but the release absolutely succeeds in acting as a document of the Twin Cities scene as it stands at this point in time. And as I mentioned earlier, if you want vinyl, there's a 3xLP version of this fucker available for only $10! (8/10)
Running time - 2:16:03, Tracks: 54
[Notable tracks: 1-2-Go! Crew, Calloused, Dillinger Four, Holding On, International Robot, Martyr A.D., Misery, Path of Destruction, Provoked, Red Vendetta, Season of Fire, Seconds Before, Too Pure to Die]
Havoc Records - http://www.havocrex.com

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