Labels: No Idea Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I love the message etched on the vinyl – “It’s not how long you’ve been straight edge. It’s how many times”. Nice one!
The Swarm (a.k.a. Knee Deep In The Dead) are here to fucking kill you. This record is just totally hard and heavy with a bit of metal and it goes fast and slow doing grind with a screaming vocalist that means I can dig this thing cos there’s no ‘puking into the microphone’ going on. Big thanks to my Aussie residing friend Nadia for introducing me to the more crushing aspects of hardcore with those crazy Acrid and Converge songs you put on that tape! The Swarm feature ex-members of Acrid by the way. Who in turn feature ex-members of Grade, so maybe it’s the same people still. Who knows.
I picked up this record because of the song on the No Idea sampler CD, “Fucking Invincible at 1 AM”, and that’s one of the best on here as Colohan screams his lungs out and the band nuke the surrounding area. Beware the fallout. Other songs on here like the lightspeed “First Saved Message” will make you fill your pants, whilst others like “Blink” will make you run around the room, pointing and screaming and moshing and stuff. And listen to that lumbering metal opening on the weighty “God’s Little Acre”. One day I will play this superloud and watch the walls collapse around me. Oh, you gotta rate the lyrics highly too, and the last track “Monopolized Reality For The Maintenance Of Order” is a monologue story rather than a song. Very cool.
Who knows if this compares well to other records of the genre, but I’m loving it. Definitely one to play to non-punk friends when they ask what you listen to – “Oh, I kind of like stuff like this” – watch them run a mile… they’ll never sleep safely in their bed again. Pulverising.