Dutch act Kriegstanz takes side A of this split with two tracks of crushing D-beat styled hardcore/punk with gruffly barked vocals and an occasional dash of contemporary dissonance to add urgency to their rhythmic surges and noisy lead lines. "Misery" is the more immediately explosive of the two tracks, and contains a bit more variety in terms of vocal arrangements as well as guitar layering, but despite sounding somewhat typical both of these tracks are forcefully delivered slabs that hit the mark for me. The recording's a little messy and lacks clarity, but the thickness works well for their sound and doesn't really come across as too muddy, so they get by. I'm also into the bleak lyrics, what with lines such as, "Our flesh has been aching against our bones because of the hard ground we sleep on..." Brazil's I Shot Cyrus follows with four tracks of grinding hardcore with ragingly fast vocal patterns and some unexpectedly metallic riffing in terms of blasting beats and caustic tremolo picking, not to mention a generally more chaotic than expected sense of song structures that jumps around quite a bit within very quick timeframes. "Homicidio" even breaks off some rocked out lead runs that actually kick ass! Their sound is also somewhat raw in terms of letting the vocals rest barely in front of the music and lacking the clarity that the blistering riffs require, but they too are able to get by. English translations are provided for the Portuguese lyrics, so you can get a sense that the band has a sarcastic sense of humor in their overbearing attacks on socio-political issues and general hardships that piss them off. The 7" is housed in a matte sleeve that's printed almost entirely in black and white with a little bit of red on I Shot Cyrus' side of the cover. The foldout devotes two panels to each band for lyrics and additional artwork, while the other half of the cover is dedicated to the Dissent! network and some of their resistance efforts against the G8 summit and whatnot. All in all this is a solid split, and I'd be down with hearing more from both of these bands.
[Underground Punk Support]
Running time - 9:00 (approximately), Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Misery, Homicidio]
Underground Punk Support - http://go.to/upspunk/
