Labels: Unity World Wide
Review by: Martin Brown
I’m not the best reviewer for this, as whilst I’m an eclectic little bunion of the punk rock foot, tuff guy hardcore is a genre I’d have a notorious hatred for, were I to be famous. As I’m not, I’ll just have to tell you: I pretty much hate tuff guy hardcore. I hate going to shows and having huge sweaty men throw karate kicks at me during the fucking songs. It totally destroys my enjoyment of the music, and I refuse to admit that I’m the one with the problem because I don’t want the pit to resemble the island training scene from Enter the Dragon. Yet I shall do my level best to summarise these four UKHC bands on this well-packaged CD as best I can: Opening the split are 6 songs from Northampton’s Freebase, who sound like Bulldoze jamming with The Business. It’s an interesting combo for sure, but even once my disappointment their song ‘Stay Away From Me!’ wasn’t a cover of the classic Smash My Brother’s Face In song featured on NO OFFENCE’s anti paedophile appeal, I was unimpressed.
By contrast, I have to say that despite my previously admitted aversion to the genre they play, Eviscerate AD fucking rock! Easily the best production of the four bands, the beefed up sound makes every breakdown sound like it’s trying to thunder out of the speakers to fuck you up. Proper. Songs like ‘Masquerade of Truth’ and ‘Down For Life’ exhibit absolutely brilliant riffs and they’re a zillion times better than Kraynium, whom a few of the members used to play in. Winner.
Right from the intro to Set Against’s first song, ‘Always on the Floor’, I knew this jam was too damn clich�d for my arty studentile ears. They earn points for having the largest ratio of guitar chugging : rest of song that I’ve ever heard from a band. In addition, their pro education anthem ‘I’m Not Bothered’ was very enjoyable. Lyrics such as ‘Now you listen here, you caustic little fuck! Piss away your education on your own time! And tell me again how much my lesson sucks!’ are bound to send the pimpled masses running back to take control of their lives. Well done! Lastly, three songs from my hometown’s own CRO brood, Diction. I remember seeing their first show, where they closed their set with a cover of ‘Bro Hymn’ by Pennywise. I’m sure they’ll hate me for telling you all that, actually. Oops. The worst production out of all 4 bands, and it hinders the songs a lot unfortunately. The riffs are good, but go on too long for me. In conclusion. you know if you want this. If you’re not into this type of thing but like your metal hard then I advise you give Eviscerate AD a listen though. I’m out.