Ehhh, I've gotta pass on this one. Burly, moshy metalcore, which I'm usually all for, but this is a little too slow and boring for me, plus I don't like the recording and the cover art is terrible. The production is admittedly the biggest culprit here, since the guitars are a little flat and lack the prominent crunch that they need in order to drive the material. So drums and vocals (especially the latter) tend to dominate the mix, while the bass sort of falls by the wayside. But even if the recording was perfect, which would indeed help, the songwriting still relies too heavily on slower than average chugging power chords and breakdown grooves, and the end result really doesn't do anything for me to be totally honest with you. A lot of the detractors of this style of hardcore always say it all sounds the same, which I disagree with, but that's actually the case here, as there are very few tempo changes or little accents of variation on this CD. Every song is basically chugga-chugga chug chugga-chugga chug chug-chug chug-chug with the same hoarse shouting over top of it for about two to three minutes. "Crushed and Conquered" picks up the pace to a minor degree and closes with some sampled keyboards or something, although "The Friend I Should Have Been" has more of a groovy sludginess to its churning riffing and also employs some synths, so... I don't know what that's all about, but this style of hardcore should never employ keyboards in that manner. There's an unlisted track at the end of the disc after some blank space that "goes out to everybody in the sunshine state" and "Dirty South hardcore", so... whatever. I don't know if it's an old track of the band's or what? The layout isn't doing anything for me either. It looks alright inside as far as making the lyrics clean and easy to read and stuff, but man... that cover art is really lame. I'm not digging the way the band photos are randomly collaged into place with faded edges either. The whole thing just looks boring, which isn't doing the band any favors. Lyrically the songs are your usual dose of metaphorical wars and perseverance, along with other struggles and the whole subtle christian angle, so... you know. I'm not interested in the content but the only song that irritates me is "This is What They Die For" and its, "Hey, man, the military is fighting and dying for our freedom, man, you should be grateful, you crybaby, man," shtick. That shit's just tired and fucking hollow to me. I don't know, this is the first thing I've heard from this label that's been a total snoozer. I'm also not into the fact that the intro/outro instrumentals are called "Get Crunk Part I" and "Get Crunk Part II", because if the music is heavy and in your face I don't want any cheesy humor tied to it, that's just how I am. I don't know, I just can't get into this. They need to add more tempo changes and variety, because this is really and truly almost a half-hour of the same thing over and over again.
[Strike First]
Running time - 30:00 (approximately), Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: none of them particularly stand out]
Strike First Records - http://www.strikefirstrecords.com
