Fuck yeah, here's the debut full-length from this Chicago act whose last EP really impressed me. Nine more tracks of heavy as hell metallic hardcore, this time a bit more metal influenced and diverse, flirting with hints of melody on occasion. But the core of the work is definitely still made up of burly chord progressions and chugga styled breakdowns fronted by hoarse vocal yells. And don't overanalyze the fact that I'm referring to melody here, because this is hard as nails material, the melody is simply added texture/variety, there's no wimpy bullshit here whatsoever. "Worse Than Death" gets a little faster at times and also opens up into some of the most melodic chords of the disc before plowing through a crushing mosh part, "Where Will You Go?" opens with a note-based metal run and cruises into some brutal 90's styled metalcore with a European flare, "The True Failure" is similar in massive heaviness but catchier (with a few hints at singing backup vocals, no less), "Vatican" is another that puts a bit more speed into it, "The King is Dead" plays with dissonant chords that stand apart from most of the other tracks, etc. There's a re-recording of "Tell My Mom I Love Her" from the "Where All My Nightmares Came True" EP as well, which was one of my favorites, so I'm pleased to see it sticking around here. The recording is pretty good. Effective, if nothing else. The guitar tone could use more aggression to its crunch and the drums could maybe stand to be evened out a little, but I think the mix is very cohesive. The bass is audible, there's a good amount of character to the vocals, and there are no gaps. It's nice and heavy and lets enough detail show through during the more melodic chord progressions, etc. The layout looks fucking awesome on this thing, all printed on matte paper with lots of high contrast graphics (fitting images of crime scenes, coffins, pallbearers, etc.) using only black and subtly metallic bronze inks. The lyrics are usually intensely personal without getting too specific, conveying more of a bitter atmosphere than anything. "You have no fucking heart. You were wasted from the start. In the end the demons won. What a fucking waste. You threw it all away. Everything you had, up in fucking flames. Go to sleep. You let me down. We all wanted to help." This band is definitely underrated. If they could score a little more attention to get enough of a budget to beef up their sound to match their more "popular" contemporaries they'd shit all over a good deal of that stuff. Hopefully they'll keep at it and reach that level at some point, because they're too good to be overlooked by the majority. Check 'em out.
[Organized Crime]
Running time - 30:58, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Where Will You Go?, The True Failure, I Know What I Am, Tell My Mom I Love Her]
Organized Crime Records - http://www.organizedcrimerecords.com
