Labels: Rorschach Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This is the first Brainworms junk, recorded a while ago and out for quite some time, but here is a review anyway in case you missed them somehow. Brainworms play some shit hot hardcore punk rock with bonus emo! That is generally enough to get my attention. So what you have on the first 8, rampant songs here is some short attention span guy yelping and shouting in an alarmed fashion over grooving, pounding and downright rocking guitaring. What you end up with is some fancy combo of Assfactor4 and Native Nod. Sheeeeeeeit! OK, so no band ever sounds as good as an amalgamation of A4 and NN, but Brainworms do their damned best to come up with a reasonable approximation and they totally succeeeeeeeeed into the bargain. So you get crashing rhythms, driving basslines, a dude who shouts and a dalliance with confusion. Each track attempts to the bludgeon the other into submission, but despite the frantic nature of the band, they never forgot to drop a trail of melody that you can quite easily pick up and follow haphazardly for the duration. Sweeeeeeeet. Pissed off, “I’m shit, we’re fucked” lyrics go down well too, I like and empathise with what this guy is bellowing about in pretty much ‘most every song. After the first 8 songs there is some live jawns too, but to be honest, about 8 tracks in a row is about as much as I’d want to listen to Brainworms and I have little interest in any bands live recordings. Still, there’s a couple of songs here that aren’t in the first batch so at least you get something extra for yo’ £££.
Bonus points: Brainworms bring back the XL to hardcore. Fuck you, skinnies!