Dunno about you, but the last few years have seen my record-buying rather hamstrung by dogshit North American postage prices. Praise be for domestic labels like Drunken Sailor, then, who scoop up brilliant releases like this and make them available to skint or skinflint UK punx who don’t want to feel left out. Chain Whip play barebones hardcore of a type that makes me think of the early-to-middle 00s when Career Suicide and Fucked Up came roaring out the traps and you had all those No Way and Sorry State bands snapping in their wake. This, of course, means early-days US hardcore with a tuneful edge – Adolescents, Agent Orange and Circle Jerks are all touchpoints – though the tone here is more snarling, bitter and abrasive than those references might lead you to expect. While the succinct songs crackle with plenty of jittery energy it’s the bleakly matter-of-fact lyrics and distinctive, sardonic delivery that really help elevate ’14 Lashes’ above so many other bands tilling the same soil, proving – as if you ever should have doubted it – just how vital this kind of four-chord thrash still has the power to be.
