Heavy, straightforward hardcore. Plain and simple. Straightforward chord progressions, chunky breakdowns, gruffly shouted vocals, the occasional rocked out lead break or slight punk influence, etc. It never gets to a level that I would consider metal, though. The structures are simple and keep things brief, always less than three minutes, with moderate tempos that never vary to large degrees. "Backlash" opens with a sample from "Rambo: First Blood Part II" and gets a bit more into the chugga stuff rhythmically, "Benedict Arnold" is a bit faster and reminds me of something M.O.D. might've done 10 years ago when they were in a "hardcore" mood, and so on, and so forth. These guys have definitely mastered the bass break too, I'll give 'em that, ha. An unexpected standout definitely worth mentioning is the acoustic instrumental, "Isolation", which sounds amazing compared to the other tracks, and definitely reminds me of something an 80's thrash band would've used for an intro! The production needs work, but not too much. The bass tone rules, and the drums are tolerable most of the time. Actually, the vocals are alright too, just a little flat. The guitar tone is what mainly bothers me just because it has a sheen to it that sort of dominates the mix (alongside the crispness of the percussion), and the other instruments need more punch and balance as a result. The end result just doesn't pack enough power and density, though they are heading the right direction. The CD-R's done up in one of those weird packages where you can tell the stuff was printed on pre-formatted pages with perforations and stuff, but the print quality is dark as hell and actually looks pretty good. Aside from a few bits of text that get hard to read and a photo that's on the pixilated side the layout's fairly well handled, too. The lyrics deal with corruption and greed in "the system", being "stabbed in the back", alienation and being mistreated simply for being yourself, etc. Not bad. A stronger recording is what would benefit them the most. There are some bland songs here, but only a couple. I've got few gripes with their actual songwriting. They've got a few more influences up their sleeves than they brandish regularly, so more variety might not hurt, but this is a competent set of songs.
[Turkey Vulture]
Running time - 21:49, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Pig Business, Benedict Arnold, Disestablishmentarianism]
New Society of Anarchists - http://www.newsocietyofanarchists.com
