The five piece stomp and spit all over their new twelve track album Steal The Crown, treading the tightrope between melodic intervals and straight up hardcore that finds many bands slipping. Vocalist Joe keeps his melodies grounded in a roughness, sharing more in common with Dead Swans heartfelt cries than the recent glossy choruses of Your Demise.
The band crafts well written songs that deliver catchy hooks that sharply morph into swift right hooks that snap you back to attention. The final riff in Memories Last is pure pit fodder and Tides is succinct and covers all the hardcore bases with flair. Despite Overcome having one of the most hackneyed song titles in hardcore and a chorus about ‘never giving up’ the verses have a cocky swagger that just about compensates for the fact that it’s going to be a clear favourite for the upset teens at the front pouring out their hearts and trying to maintain constant eye contact with the singer the whole time.
For high-energy stage dives and flailing flannel shirts that would make Scott Vogel break out in ‘xHivesx’ with excitement, and the occasional exceptionally well placed ‘Bleh’ look no further.
If it’s astute social commentary you’re after you may need a longer lens. Although at inception the lyrics serve as a great introduction to the words of Hitchens, Harris and Dawkins; the initial venom that accompanies lyrics like ‘Creationist lies believed by the weak’ only becomes poignant if your world view is as myopic as the people the negativity is directed against.
An enjoyable half hour for any hardcore fan that is less concerned with reinventing the wheel, and more interested in setting that wheel a flame and circle pitting around it to relive the frustrations of modern living.
6/10
