Hmmm... this is a brief demo of bass and drums hardcore in a raging old school sort of style from this Georgia duo. The bassist handles the vocals, the drummer drums, and that's that. In this case it's awesome that there are no guitars because the bassist is fucking great! The basslines are tight and complex, never missing a beat, and it's really interesting to hear that sort of playing drive a song in exactly the manner in which a guitar would, nothing feels like it's missing here, two instruments and vocals really fill out the songs well due to their style of playing. The recording does need work, though. It's not awful, in fact I like certain aspects of it, but the output level of the tape is entirely too quiet and it also needs a more even mix with a thicker drum sound. Right now the bass and vocals dominate and the drums, while sounding decent, are a bit distant and flimsy. The cassette comes with a simple cover and a case that has an opaque blue bottom half. The artwork doesn't fit the music at all and gives off the wrong impression. The presentation does look good for a simple xerox cover (and they did at least go to the trouble to get straight blank tapes and not some store bought brand name crap), but the lyrical content is far more mature than the gory artwork would ever lead on: "You can believe what you want but the fact is nothing has changed, The old ideals are worthless and never are replaced, I guess that's just getting older, I want to find a way to focus on how to make a change, But where the fuck to begin..." This demo is surely rough around the edges, and the band needs minor work, but I have to give them a lot of credit for making do with the bare minimum and doing a damn fine job of it. With a cleaner sound I would totally love to see these guys do a 7" or even a full-length (though I think that EP's might be their finest format). Not bad.
[self-released]
Running time - 8:30 (approximately), Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: You're the Enemy, Line in the Sand, Nothing's Changed]
Despot Hut - [email protected]
