Labels: A Fine City – Town Clock
Review by: Alex Deller
Two defunct UK bands here and a dose of solid enough no-frills hardcore from both. Visual Offence up first and they’re pitched somewhere between Crudos and early Career Suicide with their trebly guitar attack and yelpy yells, but they pepper things with the occasional left-of-centre break or bassline to stop things disappearing in a mindless blur. Volunteers, it has to be said, play a pretty similar line in thrashy punk, albeit beefed up some and not quite as interesting. One song (“The Peds”) takes on the public’s appetite for ropy torture porn which is, I guess, a pretty contrary stance since so many punx have as much of a thirst for gore and degradation when it comes to movie-going as the twerps who think “Hostel’ is a ripping good horror yarn. Hmm. All in all: s’ok. Probably time to reel out that well-worn stock phrase that it all probably would’ve been that much better live…