Here's some thick and nasty hardcore punk with lots of volume and a really interesting sense of discordance going on. There's a noisy sort of edge to some of the riffing that definitely has a Black Flag feel, but overall the songs just tend to have an early- to mid-80's west coast sort of thing going on. There's a good level of moderate speed, the chords tend to ring full and open, the vocals are sort of shouted in key (sometimes sung), and they keep the songs short and memorable despite the subtle abrasiveness that's going on. Another cool thing is that there's a weird sort of darkness to some of the material, even though it's kind of catchy and energetic at the same time. Slower tracks like "Struggling for Failure" and "Out of My Mind" are more obviously leaning in such a direction, complete with melodic lead lines, but even some of the faster and more straight ahead songs have an eerie undercurrent. At the end of the disc there are a couple of unlisted cover songs, including the Sex Pistols' "No Feelings", which makes for a nice addition. The recording's pretty raw, but they've got a pretty good mix happening that overall works. It can be somewhat muddy or noisy in areas, but I don't feel like anything's getting lost per se. The drums are fine, the guitars are thick and have an appropriately dirty side, the vocals are way back in with the music, and the bass kind of gets lost... I don't mind. The layout's not that hot, though. There are some black and white band photos inside, as well as the lyrics, and the only color used is green, but the illustrations suck. Maybe they were going for a really crude old school 80's D.I.Y. hardcore vibe or something with the drawings, but it's not the early-80's anymore, so that stuff doesn't really cut it with me at all. The lyrics are all pissed off and personal, nothing shocking: "I'm so fucking hung up and you're the noose. I'm feeling like I'm dead, living, what's the use? Do you get off on my pain? Does it make you feel good to hear me scream?" Not bad. I could deal with a little more variety in a sense, a lot of these songs sound similar to one another and of those only a couple really hit me, but I haven't heard any bands that have this kind of a feel going for 'em lately. This band's definitely onto something. Get rid of the lame drawings on the record cover, though!
[Dead Alive]
Running time - 25:00 (approximately), Tracks: 13
[Notable tracks: 217, Possessed, Farewell, No Feelings]
Dead Alive Records - http://www.deadaliverecords.com
