Labels: Southern Lord
Review by: Alex Deller
Another day, another hardcore release on Southern Lord. While the label’s punk pickings can be a bit of a mixed bag, this one’s definitely in the ‘win’ camp: a bolshy, brazen blast that sounds a like Born Against and Burning Love duking it out for the record shop’s last copy of ‘Feel The Darkness’. Its success rests on two key things: the sheer hell-for-leather adrenaline rush of the delivery and their singer’s snarling, borderline OTT delivery which has a real sense of personality about it, lingering as it does somewhere between the dude from Zeke, John Brannon’s rockier output and the gargled oww-oww-owwwws of a turps-swigging Ray Of Today. While there might be some slight padding here and there (‘Scapegoat’, for example) there’s enough by way of diversity and quality to suggest ‘Poison Everything’ has a life beyond mere shot-in-the-arm gratification and put Obliterations up there with the top tier of the Lord’s recent signings.