Down to Nothing "Save it for the Birds" CD
[Thorp]
Hell yeah. I've been waiting for this disc to drop for a long time, so I'm glad it's finally out. Straight up hardcore from Richmond, VA. They mix it up with some old school influences and some heavier, hard-hitting breakdowns, but there's no metal here whatsoever. Few songs top two minutes, and they keep the energy level high with a good mix of tempos, a little bit of melody, great yelling vocals that don't sound forced or anything, etc. At times they remind of their now defunct citymates Count Me Out, but this is definitely more bitter in attitude and musically in your face. You've got your shorter songs like the explosive 30 seconds of "Pet Peeve"; and then "Outcome", one of the longer pieces, not only has small hints of melody, but the rocked out sort of slow break towards the end is fucking awesome, and there's a split-second little lead riff in there. "Who Are You to Say" is a little bit heavier than some of the other tracks, but it's also the most memorable song herein... And I haven't really heard a fucking straightedge anthem like "Fire Escape" in quite some time, so that one definitely stands out as well. There are a couple of tracks tucked away at the end of the disc, one of which is a quick burst of vocals and noisiness, and the other I think is an older song from their demo called "I Hope it's Worth It", but I'm not sure - the song is fucking awesome though. The production is fine by me. The snare pops out a little bit too much, and if that were mixed back in it would be just about perfect, but everything else sounds great. The bass is there, the vocals are mixed closely beside the guitars, there's a good amount of density, it's clear, etc. The layout is really cool. Everything looks totally consistent as far as imagery, color, and typefaces, and it just works out really well. The lyrics are sort of typical for hardcore as suggested by a few of the more direct song titles like "What Goes Around Comes Around" and "Who Are You to Say", and there are also a few songs that deal with straightedge, which is cool because there aren't as many bands around expressing that whole angle anymore. "Now 'we're the kids with broken hearts', We're 'the hardest kids' with x's by our names, Our numbers aren't as high, but we wear the name without shame, I'm tired of watching it go, We're an army dropping like flies, It doesn't seem like it's real anymore, When everybody runs, everybody dies." Awesome stuff. I definitely think there's more in store for these cats. (8/10)
Running time - 25:00 (approximately), Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Outcome, Who Are You to Say, Fire Escape, I Hope it's Worth It]
Thorp Records - http://www.thorprecords.com

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