Not bad. Energetic hardcore/punk with nice use of speedy tempos and snotty vocal yells with good tradeoffs and backups. A solid recording helps out, with the guitars getting a little thin and acerbic, but the rhythm section coming across loud and clear. Some noisy lead playing is involved, but for the most part it's tight and straightforward. There's a very light crossover feel on rare occasions, making some of the stuff sound like D.R.I. meets Grimple or something like that (check out the high speed picking patterns and very quick rock runs in the title track); and "Gasmask" even has a flat out metal break seemingly out of nowhere!? There are also some nods to early-80's west coast hardcore, but overall I think a better guitar tone would really help this stuff a lot as far as clearing up some of the riffs and adding more force. The layout is so-so, all done in black and white with somewhat typical imagery and bland typesetting. I like the handwritten text on the xeroxed insert, but everything still kind of comes off as plain and cramped. It gets the job done but doesn't exactly provide a great representation of the music. The lyrics deal with your usual socio-political topics such as war, with other less pointed tracks coming off with more of a sarcastic and bitter punk rock attitude. This is a nice little EP from a promising trio, I'm just not blown away. I'd like to hear more from the band at some point to see where they take it, though.
[Get Revenge!]
Running time - 8:00 (approximately), Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: For What, Gasmask]
Life Crisis - http://www.lifecrisis.net
