Labels: Vendetta
Review by: Alex Deller
We are at this weird point in hardcore’s history where so much of everything is just an amorphous gloop. Styles, sounds, ideas, quirks, genres all running together, cross-pollinating and doing bad things to each other behind the bikesheds. In theory, it should be really exciting. In reality it’s often not, the net result often akin to a bunch of different delicious foods chucked in the blender in order to create a bland, browny-beige pulp. Sometimes bands can win through by virtue of superior riffs, canny songwriting or simple charisma, but oftentimes they sound like Vyst. Sorta decent. Hard to hate. Not the type of record you want to break across your knee. Full of pep and dynamism as they chuck all their styles in the grab bag to the point where you can’t separate out the HHiG and the Systral from the Cursed or the Converge. Full of solid riffs and twist-yer-neck tempo changes. Loaded with plenty of heart, too, with songs about hopes and failures and grand schemes gone to shit. But I am at a total loss as to why I would listen to it again or implore anyone else to do the same.