The Ropes- s/t EP review

The Ropes- s/t EP review

This is a lightning fast old-school hardcore punk EP.  Lyrics are pretty simple, but still manage to get the mind rolling; it’s a mixture of introspection and good old self-loathing (or loathing in general).  “Valium Cocoon” and “Heads Will Roll” are the two best tracks, but all the songs on here are rough, aggressive, dark hardcore punk where one can’t go wrong.  The vocal style is almost unique, being gruff and low-pitch, but not brutal- it’s delivered at a punk rock pace, and it’s still uncompromising enough to make one want to fight somebody, at least verbally if not physically.  This is very simple music, but it is deeper than the surface value, if one wishes to look deeper at it.  If not, this is still stellar 80s hardcore punk- loud and angry, but not so much young and snotty.

-Aunty Social

Salvation- House of the Beating Hell 7" review

Salvation- House of the Beating Hell 7” review

This is some dissonant, dark, blackened, bleak hardcore with the slightest of metal and gothic rock influences (moreso in the heavy but not too low-sounding guitar) and a truly unhinged freak of a vocalist.  Though only four tracks long, the EP is maddening, both in its ability to evoke anger and rage and in its deliberately slower tempo that sounds like a man being subjected to a slow, torturous, painful death  at the hands of a freak on the loose.
“The Tethered Man” is the song that sets the tempo for the record, holding one in place and capturing them.  It’s impossible to evade the sinister shrieks of singer Matthew Adis, who also does the lyrics and the art/layout for the record sleeve.  “Twice the Vision” is the introduction of recitable lyrics, and even a chorus, which is something (standard song structure, that is) that the band very much avoids.  The parallelism between Salvation and even something as close as hardcore punk, however, is small and difficult to take note of.  This is the second part of what I feel is a story, this song being the narrative of an insane man, a deranged but moralistic killer.
“Intake” is the third song, and though it is a song unto itself, it almost serves better as the independent introduction to the last song.  In this chapter, there is an exchange between this “tethered man” and the narrator, being some sort of pleading and reasoning, and the ultimatum of deranged rants and screams from the moralistic killer.  As the song fades out, the most menacing, hopeless, deranged, dark introduction for a song rings out, and the madman begins his work on the “tethered man”, signified by the title “House of the Beating Hell”.  The intro fades into the first verse of the song, a short, creepy guitar riff of only a few notes that resonates deep within the mind as the song of an utterly hopeless and bleak setting- the swansong of a serial killer, if you will.  This is the epilogue, the climax, and the decline all in one.  Undoubtedly the best song on the record, the song is memorable for its riff, if not the jagged, deranged words and sounds of the singer.  There “tethered man” is butchered and bloodied, and the killer’s needs are satisfied.  This is not unlike a story by Edgar Allan Poe, modernized and put to music.

This is the darkest music one will have heard to date.  It is not without hope, but it’s certainly lacking in it.  For those who can conceive a vision of a world abandoned and its will capitulated, this is a simultaneously simple and complex EP that’s ultimately fucking great.

-Aunty Social

Cadaver Dog- demo tape review

Cadaver Dog- demo tape review

Rough- sounding 80s hardcore with growlithe, raspy vocals delivered with invective fury and a misanthropic energy.  The low-fi production undoubtedly benefits the band here, and the simplicity is the adored quality of hardcore punk like this.  Like Loli & the Chones for garage punk and Slayer for thrash metal, this demo cuts right to the chase, to the forefront of a handful of bands bringing back that simple, angry, fast, and raw hardcore sound.  Circle and push pits galore during the short length of this demo, there isn’t any time to break down the walls.  Recommended if one can locate a reasonably-priced copy.

-Aunty Social

Hoax- First EP (a.k.a. ‘Fagget’) 7” review

Hoax- First EP (a.k.a. ‘Fagget’) 7” review

This is some of the angriest music I’ve ever heard.  This is the modern, self-loathing, nihilistic version of Discharge- intense, brutal, simple, and absolutely without compromise.  ‘Fagget’ is the sort of song fans would scream for, hate mosh to, and destroy their voice bellowing the lyrics with almost as much rage as the singer.  It’s about the consequences of bullying people with a particularly invective homophobic epithet, and rather than the music being fast, it is mid-tempo, and absolutely crushes.  (writer’s note:  This is the kind of song that if KING wrote it, this would be the song that would set off the crowd)  This song is so angry, so blood-boiling, so vicious that it feels good.  ‘Endgame’ is a continuation of the mid-tempo theme, and this time is about losing, presumably in life.  One is liable to end up with a very bloody nose by the end of this song.  ‘Dead Weight’ is about the burden of depression and the treatment methods that might come with it.  It rings too true of the crushed hope often following a treatment that is not effective enough, or in this case, completely backfires and makes one worse.  (writer’s note:  I myself have had experience with this, and it is all but true- when medication for an already depressed person doesn’t work, the patient often gets worse because they expected to improve, and they didn’t, and this feeling only worsens when said meds backfire)  There is undoubtedly a level of annoyance experienced when one says “I feel like shooting myself today” when said person is merely having one bad day, and this person has yet to realize what that feeling is like on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis.  ‘Leech’ closes out the EP, and is about, you guessed it, a one-sided relationship where one gives and the other takes, with the parasite clearly dependent on the host for the taking.

This EP is the soundtrack to the self-annihilation of one person.  You will find this record playing in the bathroom with a suicide victim and a plugged-in toaster.  Death is not swift.

-Aunty Social