Review: Trash Talk - Awake

 Since first gaining notoriety with 2010's Eyes & Nines, Sacramento's Trash Talk have been cited as the band that are likely to take hardcore punk into the new age. Though this seems to be a title that goes to a new band every year, belonging in 2009 to Fucked Up and being taken this year by Cerebral Ballzy. So five track EP Awake clearly shows that Trash Talk are still standing on both feet and ready to fight for their title of heroes of hardcore.

 And boy do they do a good job of it. Short and sweet, but leaving a lasting impression, Awake really manages to carry the spirit of hardcore punk along, being reminiscent of the likes of Black Flag and Bad Brains. With it's prolonged sense of intensity and rapidness seen in the extreme jagged riffs and blast beats that at many points particularly closer Gimme Death can just be described as cool and has an effect that makes one want to lay back and listen as much as it does make them want to get up and headbang.
 With the vocals of Lee Spielman sounding like a more sterile version of Cancer Bats' Liam Cormier there is something of a modern influence within the group, but for the most part this is the kind of music that really carries in the spirit of traditional hardcore.
 That's all there is to say really. Awake lasting around five minutes is an EP that leaves a lasting impression and a desire for more from these crazy motherfuckers. We need more from Trash Talk. Because this EP pretty much defines hardcore punk.

 Trash Talk's Awake is out now via True Panther Sounds. The band will tour the UK from November-December with Every Time I Die, Spycatcher and Defeater.