Fuck... yes... this band has gotten better and better over the years, and like "Outlaw Anthems" this quick EP hits like a ton of bricks and offers up some of the band's strongest and most diverse material to date. From the harder power chords and chunky breakdown of "Live the Lie", to the Sinners and Saints styled heavy melodic rock of "A Rock 'n' Roll Song", or the sinister theft of the Halloween theme song riff and what I assume is an assimilation of Agnostic Front's classic "there's no justice, there's just us" line in "My Jesus Mercy". Plus they cover Del Shannon's early 60's classic "Runaway", so... there are a ton of different influences at work here from across the hardcore, punk, rock, and metal spectrums. There are also shitloads of constant vocal tradeoffs between Buddha's burly shouts and Rob's raspy singing, and none of the variety in the songwriting feels out of place. Only one song hits three minutes, so everything herein is compact and memorable with no bullshit. The recording crushes, too. It sounds pretty similar to the last full-length, with maybe a little bit more of an edge to the guitar tone. There are extremely minor little pockets that could use tweaking, but the rhythm section sounds like a million bucks, I wouldn't touch the vocals, and the guitar tone is perfectly suitable. It's rare to hear an EP have such a high level of production quality, so these guys definitely know exactly what they're doing at this point in time. The layout looks solid and includes some gritty photos of a city corner with all of the lyrics and such, and of course the lyrics are as fucking bitter as ever, dealing with true life hardships with no bullshit and tons of attitude. Among the most acerbic and pointed lines? "None of you cowards has a thing to say. Another song about 'the edge', 'the crew', or your precious salad days. The world's aflame and still you play your games. But your hair looks great and your sound is so stridently tame..." Awesome. There's also a fucking amazing CD-Rom segment with about 20 minutes or so of interview footage with the band in the studio talking about the new material, the writing process, the development of the band over the years, etc. Plus there are some little bonus "bloopers", a photo gallery, and boombox rehearsal recordings of the songs. The shit is all handled totally pro (probably the best set of CD-Rom add-ons I've ever seen, quite honestly) and makes me respect these guys even more because their attitudes, senses of humor, and honesty are damn near unparalleled. White Trash Rob is a flat out fucking genius songwriter, too. No shit. That dude can do anything. Great, great stuff. I'm so damn glad this band has kept hanging in there. Get this shit right now or just fuck on off, douchebags.
[Thorp]
Running time - 16:45, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Hanging on the Corner, Live the Lie, A Rock 'n' Roll Song, My Jesus Mercy, and all of the others...]
Thorp Records - http://www.thorprecords.com
