Damn! 17 tracks of fast Italian hardcore in less than 15 minutes! This is good stuff, fast paced and energetic hardcore/punk that sometimes bounces around towards crossover thrash or amped up rock 'n' roll with lots of vocal tradeoffs between various degrees of gruff shouting/yelling. There's a killer breakdown in "8", the aptly titled "The Rock" is fast and furious with a major rock 'n' roll edge and tons of attitude, "Lack of Internet" blows through some early-80's hardcore speed and fury before slowing down to a quirky rock rhythm... this is just a solid fucking slab of hardcore. As noted by the running time, most of these songs are less than a minute long, so it's all go with no fucking messing around. Well, okay, there are a couple of little joke-ish instrumental tracks as well, such as the bluesy chords and whistling of "Different Ideas About Punk", or "XXX" (Which samples Ice-T's "Colors" for a mere five seconds!?), but even those fit into the grand scheme of things really well. I have no complaints about the recording. At first it seemed a little thin to me, but it gives the basslines plenty of room to pound around, the mix is clear, all of the tones sound good, etc. The last two tracks appear after three minutes of blank space for some odd reason, and seem to come from an older (slightly rawer) recording session and a slightly heavier time in the band's history (namely in "No Doubt"). The layout looks fucking great on this thing, with lots of high contrast black and white artwork, solid photos, clean text, etc. I really like the cover. The lyrics deal with personal issues for the most part, at times hinting at social commentary, and they have a sense of humor, so it's well balanced. This kicks ass, I really like it. It's really vigorous and memorable, it's got a message, but it's also fun... Definitely fucking recommended for those who like to thrash it up.
[Valium]
Running time - 12:00 (approximately), Tracks: 17
[Notable tracks: Fight, 8, The Rock, Die Hard (Still Here), Feelings Must Not Be Confused With Reality]
Valium Records - http://www.hellnation.it
