Labels: No Idea Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
After picking up their awesome compilation CD, I had enormous expectations of this record. Perhaps too high. Not to say that this is anything less than great, they just haven’t reached the next level quite just yet. That’s fine by me though, that can come on a future album.
This basically picks up where the most recent stuff on the compilation left off. Heavy, intense and thundering, yet melodic and emotional, the Bike are getting even more immense than ever before. Definitely more crunchy metal in the mix than before, which just serves to crush you far more brutally this time round. Luckily, it’s metal I can stomach, being hardcore riffs that demolish your face rather than make you cringe, such as on the soaring “Atlanta” which features their best metal chugging yet. They also generally flow into the more ear friendly melodic sections, and there’s no ‘bleeuuuuuuurgh!’ death vocals either, with the various singers opting for strained ‘n’ pained yelling that lies half way between Hot Water Music and Clairmel. But I think they’re getting the music a little more away from those two giants by building on the heaviness of the whole sound.
Standout tracks include the 6 minute epic, final song “Make This A Holiday” and “Zerosum” which has lyrics that reduce you to nothing. There’s also a bit of subtle ingenuity going on with the packaging that I only just noticed.
Totally killer – gritty, tempestuous emotional hardcore. Splendide.