Labels: Vitriol
Review by: Joe Callaghan
Split records irk me. For one, I am completely anally retentive, so how am I meant to file this in alphabetical order without completely isolating one of the artists on the record from my collection? For that matter, let’s not even get into 4 way splits, or I’ll probably sprint home and take a match to my music collection to rid me of this banal compulsive obsession. Secondly, if it’s just two bands sharing one record, then I find that a little wasteful. I’m more taken by splits that have a reason behind the two bands sharing a record. The Small Brown Bike/Casket Lottery split for example, where the bands actually collaborated on songs, or the Dauntless Elite/Jets v Sharks, where they switched singers on the closing track of each side. Heck, even the NOFX/Rancid split had each band doing covers of each others songs. It’s a hook! If you’re going to go into a split record with another band, the best thing you can possibly do is make sure you’re better than the other band. Instant comparisons will be made, like when you stand next to someone who is better looking than you. Instantly noticeable. So, make sure you reign supreme, or your side of the split will be remembered as the “shit side”. Careful. For me, Ghost Limb take that throne here. I was very unmoved by Fischer. The musicianship is rigid and the flow of each structure is ragged and impulsive. Vocally they leave a lot to be desired, as each yelp is flat and uninspiring. Ghost Limb blast out of the blocks in a much more ripping fashion. The vocals are coarse and unruly, and the entire chunk of noise is blasted out at such a pace that it’s over before you have time to ingest it. It’s very much hardcore punk orientated, but Ghost Limb sneak in post hardcore and screamo subtleties to keep this record from dying a verse/chorus/verse/chorus death before it has even begun. A solid side, let down a little by the cease in the same ferocity on the flip. But perhaps you already like Fischer but don’t like the rugged, puerile hardcore punk on Side A? Christ”¦ Maybe you even like both sides, in some sort of fairytale open minded world. Fuck you.