Labels: Forge Again
Review by: Kunal Nandi
HWC are hilarious, but at least they know it. With their adopted shtick of playing “corporate grind” (a total oxymoron of course), their legendary live shows see them thrashing about in Armani suits (or nothing at all judging by the photos on their website). This 7″ comes brilliantly packaged as a split-pin bound series of business memos, filled with hilariously vitriolic hate-filled threats from the boss on high. (“When they told me our profits had actually decreased, i made sure to twist my penis in various contortions to express my burning anger and fury. Don’t fucking push me!” and so on). I’m missing out on the CD version’s utterly libellous appropriation of Metallica’s “Master Of Puppets” artwork, but I do get the great songtitles (e.g. “Sell ‘Em All”, “One… Million Dollars” etc.). Metallica deserve to have all the pot-shots people can throw at them to be honest.
Anyway, having started out as a fun but undistinguished fast hardcore band, HWC has honed itself into quite the deadly metal/grind combo, giving Pig Destroyer a real run for their money at times. All the evident humour is used to make intelligent and pointed anti-capitalist statements, and with
class music to back it all up, it even has my apathetic brain ticking over. At least, I think the lyrics are good – who knows what these hardcore dudes are shouting about half the time?