Labels: Hardware
Review by: Alex Hannan
JACKALS bookend their latest 7″ with its best tracks: “Violence is…” has a cracking opening riff leading into fast, aggressive hardcore, with an intense breakdown of just bass, drums and yelling. “Isolation” slows the pace for a mean-sounding stomper with catchy little guitar leads needling your face. These are the two tracks that show off the twin guitars to best effect, and get the most rhythmically creative. They’ve managed to capture some cool gnarled feedback effects in the lulls between attacks, too.
The middle of the sandwich is less consistent – “Sanitised” has one of the catchiest choruses of the record and a splintered, desperate guitar solo, but then the slower part at the end is less memorable. “Rotten system” has great pacing and variation in the parts of the song, but the musical ideas feel hurriedly written. Sometimes the layers of guitars make the sound feel a bit soupy – a lack of crispness in the articulation of the riffs.
The lyrics mostly deal with different forms of social injustice, The style in which they’re conceived makes me wonder who swallowed the dictionary – impressionistic, a little poetic, heavy on the multi-syllables. “Instinctive response to supplant exploitation / Individual adaptation of personal consumption / Liberal reproduction ineffective in isolation,” begins “Isolation” – I think I know what they’re getting at, but where previous records had illuminating lyric explanations, this one directs me to a blog where this 7″ as yet has no entry. I’ll check it out when they get round to it, though, as despite my pisstaking I think they cover interesting topics in an enquiring and critical way.