The layout on this record's all black and gray and looks like an old Black Flag album (due in no small part to the use of two illustrations by Raymond Pettibon - known for his work with Black Flag, among others). Not surprisingly, Annihilation Time has more the a little bit of a Black Flag influence going on, especially musically (without being a copycat band in the least). This is straight up hardcore/punk with a suitably raw sound, plenty of straightforward chord progressions, lots of quirky riffing, a few uses of somewhat sloppy harmonics, several noisy lead breaks here and there, a good amount of dissonance, and vocals that range from straight yelling to spoken word passages. Of course this isn't as intense as Black Flag by any means, and they tend to stick with moderately paced tempos, but there are some real ragers here - the rocked out and slightly more musically upbeat "1962", for instance. I actually really like the more rocked out influences here, they definitely add some energy without sounding out of place. And I fucking love the way the singer just screams "Yeeeaaahhh!" all the time out of nowhere. He's definitely into it. I like the production. It's slightly rugged, but it works perfectly. The drums are natural, the guitars are dry and dirty, the vocals are mixed smack in the middle of the music, the bass pumps away in the distance, etc. I don't have any problems with the sound at all. It's cool that they didn't try to take things too far into the "retro hardcore" sounding direction as far as the recording is concerned, because more often than not bands suffer as a result of that. Lyrically things range from pissed off and personal to pissed off and a bit more pointed, dealing with a couple of topics like pollution and religious hypocrisy, but not taking things to an extreme level of depth. "Cold and alone in my prison is where I stay, I hear a voice call me so I turn and look the other way, Desperate and numb my nerves are shot, I can't feel, When I take a look around I can't believe this is for real, Killing time, Annihilate my mind, Step outside my prison wall and prepare for war..." This is good stuff. It takes a few songs for the band to really start picking up and kicking ass, but I'm into it. A little bit more tempo variation might help, but as long as they keep the songs short and to the point and stick with tasteful total running times like this they won't bore anyone.
[Dead Alive]
Running time - 20:04, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: 1962, Feel it Inside, Sand Lot]
Dead Alive Records - http://www.deadaliverecords.com
