Violent Arrest ‘self-titled’ album review

Violent Arrest ‘self-titled’ album review


What if Discharge didn’t just play one song with alternating power chord riffs and hihat-tomtom-snare variations of drumming? You would likely get Violent Arrest, an outwardly political, heavy-handed high distortion, high-speed hardcore band from the U.K. Although the band likely takes the name from a song by the Freeze, the band sounds fresh, not aping any established sound too much and still incorporating musical influences.

Religiously angry and desperately dissident, Violent Arrest cranks out sub-minute songs that convey one point after another with ramming speed and stealth bomber specificity. “Born On Your Knees”, “Fit for Abuse” and “Bastards” are the champions of this album, and the band also covers a couple of 80s hardcore classics, the Fix’s “Off to War” and Jerry’s Kids’ “Wired”. This is a new high point, a new bar set and raised for the hardcore world. The singer’s filthy, plaque-filled berserk rages run well with the heavy and hard power chords of the guitar and the unrelenting speed of the rhythm section. This record is the new victim’s anthem, a beckoning for constable battery, a call to take the power back from the powerfully present police state. Capitulate or annihilate? The decision lies before the listener, the answer lies within.

I’m a fanboy for any and all throwbacks to 80s hardcore, and this band is a concurrent throwback to that era and an usher for the new era. So little money for such a stalwart record; this record will make you want to start your own hardcore band. It certainly did with me.

-Aunty Social