Sort of lost touch with Kaleidoscope, and I’m not entirely sure why. Because I am an idiot, maybe? Anyway, ‘Cities Of Fear’ is an absolute blinder – stark, weird, genuinely individual hardcore punk that offers a lot to think about musically and lyrically.
There’s a lumpy, awkward, scattered quality to the music that puts me in mind of early Ebullition releases like Downcast and Econochrist mixed in with the searing strangeness of bands like Pink Turds In Space and Bleeding Rectum. The singer’s delivery and vocal cadences, meanwhile, are placed somewhere between Born Against, Moss Icon and The Subhumans: eloquent and thoughtful, but stupendously pissed off at the same time. My favourite track is probably ‘Utopia’, which features an excellent spoken word segment in amid the crunch. Songs like ‘Manufactured Squalor’, ‘Blood Minerals’ and ‘Controlled Opposition’ are furious, compelling and full of surprises, conveying a deep dissatisfaction with the state of the world in a way that makes you chew the words over long after the record has stopped spinning.