Labels: Deathwish
Review by: Alex Deller
I have mulled and mused over Death Index quite a bit. Not so much as a band, but as some sort of totem or signifier. Like, is this the cutting edge of hardcore punk? Or is it tired and stale already because we’re at such a hyper-accelerated state of creation, consumption and decay that larger labels like Deathwish will inevitably be cottoning on earlier and getting stuck in? Will those genres – glam, oi, noise-punk – that were always uncool, unlistenable or otherwise verboten be the next to topple after The Fall Of Goth, placed on the conveyor belt in order to be chewed up and ceaselessly regurgitated; or will they remain bastions of defiance because someone, at some point, might have the wherewithal to stop in the middle of our quaint little parade, point and loudly harrumph: “hold on a minute, isn’t a hc band playing hyper-proficient barroom boogie just a bit rubbish?”
Anyway. Yeah. Death Index. Beyond posing unknowable, ununravelable, meaningless mysteries about the fate of a decades-old micro-genre, they are actually alright. They feature a fella who’s been involved with Church Whip and Merchandise and sound as much. A bit spiky. A bit noisy. A bit goth-y. Intense, but not to the point where anything threatens to bleed. A comfortable listen, because you’ve known the different parts for quite some time now and they’ve all been put together very smartly indeed.