Review: Trash Talk - 119

 In 2010. the world of hardcore punk was introduced with a head on collision to one of the new most thrilling and dangerous names in the business. It was through an album known as Eyes and Nines, the third album and proper breakthrough for Sacramento quartet Trash Talk. It was an album showing signs of true gritty hardcore punk that had gone missing from the public eye for some time. And the band's efforts in following this performance up with a fearsome show at the following year's Download festival, we had a new iconic act in the realms of hardcore.

 And it seems the sounds of Trash Talk have recently been heard outwith the world of punk music as well. There was some amount of remarks to be made about the band's recent decision to sign with Odd Future Records for the recording of their latest offering 119 making them the first band on the label that wasn't a member of the critically acclaimed hip hop group of the same name as well as being the first proper rock band on the label. I mean, it raised a lot of questions. Would the band lose their punk fury in favour of a more alternative and hip hop based direction?

 Well actually, having gained a reputation for being one of the most ferocious hardcore bands of modern times, it really does seem like Trash Talk are looking to hold on to that. You can hear it throughout the album, from the opening rush of brutality that comes with Eat the Cycle with it's rough production that gives any listener the impression of having their face turned on it's side and being dragged along a path of grit. Truly the stuff dreams are made of.

 And with the rush of songs that come lasting an average of a minute and a half in length, you have more than enough time to get behind the spread of fear, anger and built up intensity that the band have on offer. From the poundings of Uncivil and Thanks But No Thanks to the bigger built Fuck Nostalgia and Apathy which carry a spirit of old school punk rock and rock and roll about them amongst the brutality, there's no time wasted in creating as much intense shredding and beatdowns as they possibly can.

 To prove themselves as one of the best names in hardcore today, songs like these would be enough but more on offer, Trash Talk do answer the question of whether a newer hip hop direction has been taken in the form of Blossom & Bloom, the album's longest song at two minutes and thirty seconds. It's the slowest most doom laden performance on the album with an opening more reminiscent of Electric Wizard than Bad Brains and with guest performances from Odd Future members Hodgy Beats and OF mainman Tyler, The Creator that proves the unconventional sense of fear and intensity they put into their own off the wall hip hop songs works just as well in a riff laden context, it's a song that proves how dynamic the results of bringing heavy rock and intense rap music can be like it's Public Enemy and Anthrax all over again.

 So, with a highly destructive follow up to the album that gave them a reputation of a band to keep your wits about you when listening to, Trash Talk have made an album that can keep them relevant in a time when the band that shakes the world of hardcore changes at a fairly constant rate, often depending on what bands hipsters that have never been to a hardcore show say they're listening to. And the fact that they can keep this hardcore intensity with an accompaniment with some new friends int he world of hip hop, 119 manages to show off the best elements of what both genres of  music have in this modern day and age in terms of ferocity and intensity in a time where a lot of big bands show less credentials. And where would we be without someone offering us fear in music?

Trash Talk's 119 is out now via Odd Future Records.

Review: All Time Low - Don't Panic

 This time last year, Baltimore's beloved pop punk quartet All Time Low found themselves with a split in their  fanbase and were being viewed as fairly average with the release of their fourth album Dirty Work. And it's little wonder. With the band's claim that the album was the sound of them growing up, it was a very bland collection of pop rock songs with little in them that sparked them to life. And in the same year where You Me At Six also promised a maturity in their music and released the phenomenal Sinners Never Sleep, it left listeners looking at releases like Dirty Work and New Found Glory's Radiosurgery and becoming very much insecure about the ability for pop punk to last on.

 It seems that the band clearly paid attention to the growing circles of "meh" that came with Dirty Work and took on a back to basics idea with their latest offering Don't Panic. Generally, if a band does go straight back to a previous style after a previous album goes down less well (I really don't need to say "See Metallica" do I?) it's viewed as just backing away as a move of fear and wish to pander to the masses. But sometimes when it's done brilliantly, then it just works. And that's the success of this new album. Because every song on this album just so happens to be a complete banger.

 No time is wasted and massive riffs from Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat kick the album into action on lead single The Reckless and the Brave with nothing you wouldn't expect from All Time Low. Big choruses, sweetening hooks and a vocal performance from Gaskarth recklessly encased in sugary pop delight. With elevated production across the album the guitar work has a much bigger outing than on previous releases and that's including 2009's stellar Nothing Personal. And that production makes tunes like To Live And Let Go feature genuine walls of distortion, in the poppiest way possible.

 It would be terrifying to come out with a statement like "All Time Low have an understanding of how making metal works" because they're a prime example of a band that would confuse you if you saw them in the Metal section of HMV. But an understanding on making highly genuine punk music with a hardcore edge does come across in the rapid fire attack of So Long Soldier, the true definition of pop hardcore if there is one that even has breakdowns that suggest attention payed to fellow metalcore bands. Yes, Warped Tour standard metalcore. They're not turning into Throwdown.

 Even with this greater desire to amp things up greater than before, the band do still find that time to show off that big pop band that we all know they are. The softer performance of Outlines is a much smoother and emotional offering from the band while the bitterness of Thanks To You shows their ability to really pen down a song that carries the context of feelings with total understanding. Moments like these show a greater maturity within the band than anything on Dirty Work, and that was the entire goal of the album.

 So without trying to completely berate last year's ambitious release, Don't Panic really does wipe the floor with Dirty Work. It has the sound of All Time Low refreshed, back on the path to put real adrenaline into a world of pop music that has gone way down in it's quality and be as emotional as they are explosive. There will be many who consider this a lazy return to what made them popular but with the energy, heightened production and all out massiveness that are on these songs, they certainly prove that they're doing what made them popular with much more passion than ever before. And that's the kind of attitude that keeps pop punk alive.

All Time Low's Don't Panic is out now via Hopeless. The band will tour the UK in February.

Review: KISS - Monster

 Your favourite band loves KISS. Since the taking off of hard rock in the 1970's, KISS have been doing the rounds with massive rock and roll party anthems, an influence that has been cast on every hard rock bands and most metal bands today and of course, the rad make up and costumes. It's difficult to think of any rock band today whether they're an indie band or a black metal band that hasn't at some point been immersed within the big riffs of Paul Stanley or Ace Frehley's shredding, who of course we can't really talk about in a justified way now because he left the band some time ago.

 And despite all this, it still feels like someone needs to stand up for KISS in this day and age. People have become cynical towards the band's concepts. They've become cynical to Gene Simmons and his constant schemes of making money through his band's image and merchandising, which arguably reached it's pinnacle last year with the announcement of KISS themed coffins and urns. They've become cynical with the supposedly irreplaceable lineup being replaced with lead guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, who wear the same makeup as Frehley and Peter Criss that stood before them. And apparently KISS don't even have enough love in the UK to prevent the Sonisphere festival that they were to headline from being cancelled.

 Sad as it is, perhaps something is to be said about The Hottest Band in the World's fire beginning to cool down. However, with a mass collection of die hard fans, and an unmovable amount of respect aimed towards them in the world of modern rock, the band release their 20th album Monster which will sadly, at best test the patience of their biggest followers.

 That's not to say that the album is band or anything. In a time where writing a solid set of three minute hard rock songs bursting with positivity that carry an air of good times, KISS still have a knack for getting people's heads moving. Opener Hell Or Hallelujah slams the album into action with big riffs from Stanley and a bigger vocal performance. As tracks like Freak and The Devil is Me go on with massive hooks and rousing cheer, there's an assurance that KISS do still know the ways of rock and roll and it's need to unite people.

 And surely we know by now that if you pack a song with nothing but good time hard rock songs, it becomes a repetitive mesh of the same thing. And by the time KISS get to Shout Mercy, they're already pushing their luck on just how long they can keep a listener attached to the album as we get to Outta This World which sounds less like it's being fired out and more like churned.

 But of course, you can't be seen to criticize KISS, because, well they're rather legendary in the grand scale of rock musicians and have such an indestructible legacy that being critical seems un-doable. Even now, I don't want to write disparagingly about these iconic musicians.

 However, with all the criticism and love for the band laid down by everyone, it seems that the band should be trying something that can continue to blow all their listeners away as they've managed so effortlessly in the past. Maybe it's something that comes with age and maybe with age and maturity the amount of partying one does should be toned down a little, otherwise your attempts to continue partying will become less impressive. (Unless your name is Andrew W.K.) It's why with Monster, KISS' attempt to show they can still party at their current age is often a sign of them playing at their most underwhelming and even as someone who loves KISS as much as your favourite band does, there is room for criticism in what they've done of late after all.

 



KISS' Monster is out now via Simston Music.

Review: Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

 If there was any real justice in this world, Converge would be up there with Slayer as one of the universally agreed heaviest bands ever. And if metalcore was viewed as a genre that genuinely showed signs of hardcore punk mixed with heavy metal work, everyone would be a fan of the band and view them in as the kings of the genre. Yet, they've always been a fairly underground force despite making albums like Jane Doe and Axe to Fall some of the heaviest, sludgiest and most doom laden albums of this age. Basically albums that express what metal is all about, all done from scratch with little money and lots of devotion behind them.

 And this devotion and despair is captured breathtakingly on eighth album All We Love We Leave Behind with the freshness that first made them a band worth listening to ten years ago and even the energy of the kids they where when they started all this in 1994, only with the despair built up.

 Sure enough the band waste no time in showing us this with the impressively dynamic and textured opening of Aimless Arrow, set alight with a range of mental time signatures from Kurt Ballou, an established guitarist in his own right now, that works amongst impressively written layerings encased in a perfect tone of despair. It's a further sign of Ballou's genius.

 As always, All We Love We Leave Behind is a real outing for the intense riff machine that is Ballou with 1-2 minute blasters like Trespasses and Shame In the Way giving the chance to deliver bruising hardcore riffage with a horrifying amount of intensity and aggression attached. The songs bring on a freshness in the pure filth of the bands performance, in the sense that they will never grow old with each listen. Converge have always had a habit of making music that becomes increasingly brutal and meaningful  the more you listen to it and this album is no exception.

 Of course, this bleakness, brutality and apocalyptic nihilism would be nothing without the pure ferocity packed in the performance of Jacob Bannon, whose delirious raspy vocals across the likes of Sadness Come Home and A Glacial Pace captivates the perfect sense of crushing bleakness that fuels hardcore and doom metal, the precise elements that Converge balance with such grit-laden perfection.

 In a simple glance, Converge have the utter intensity and sense of skill and tone to summon up the hounds of Hell and put on the wings of despair in their full performance. And on All We Love We Leave Behind, they've summoned up enough of a behemoth performance to unleash this brutality all over again with the same intensity and freshness that has made them such a potent force and such a subtly influential band on the world of metalcore which has admittedly watered down in some way. Perhaps now, the world can act some justice and give this band the justice they deserve. As one of the heaviest, most aggressive and greatest bands ever.






Converge's All We Love We Leave Behind is out now via Epitaph. the band will tour the UK in November with Touche Amore, A Storm of Light and Secret.

Review: Vision of Disorder - The Cursed Remain Cursed

 Anyone that became attached to the wave of groove metal bands in the 1990s must have known that they were following some of the most serious and now respected bands in the business today. They also must have been aware that they'd have reached something of a pinnacle when the true blend of hardcore and groove laden heavy metal came crashing towards them in the form of 1996's self titled debut from New York bruisers Vision of Disorder. As an underground force in metal and a hidden influence on some of metalcore's biggest names today, the band find themselves with a reunion taking place in a time when the genre they influenced has sprung back to life with a whole new passion and integrity. And after eleven years, they prove that they have similar qualities about them with their fifth album The Cursed Remain Cursed.

 And with eleven years away, it's obvious that this album is an outlet for a lot of anger and intensity that has built up during this time. No moment for utter delirium is left to waste for a single second of this 40 minute rampage. From the opening grooves of Loveless, Matt Baumbach and Mike Kennedy dominate the mindset of listeners with pounding grooves, face kicking breakdowns as seen on The Enemy and Skullz Out (Rot in Pieces) and enough heart racing punk charges across the likes of Blood Red Sun and New Order of Ages to prove that they really do represent the perfect hardcore band of our modern age.

 It's with the return of the intense hardcore riffage the Vision of Disorder manage to characterize themselves perfectly within this modern context, thus making the marks of a perfect comeback. With the nihilistic screams of frontman Tim Williams that is just as thrilling on frighting on Annihilator and The Seventh Circle as they are melodic and near theatrical on Be Up On It and Set To Fail, the band set their craft to a sound that is unmistakably their own that will give fans of 90's hardcore some faith in today's generation of metalcore. But where could they go wrong with a frontman whose raspy vocals can be adapted to be the voice of energetic hardcore, doom-laden dirges and big punk based melodies. As someone that listened extensively to Every Time I Die before Vision of Disorder, it's now obvious who passed the torch on to the Buffalo quintet.

 With this combination of forces, the band create an album that is consistent in it's mixture of thickness, adrenaline and underlying grit from the streets of Long Island. Even the tracks like feel a little filler based have moments that will leave your jaws wide open. That said, filler is filler and with the purpose of hardcore albums to get it's point and sheer devastating impact across in as quick a time as possible, filler's not really an option.

 That aside, you're in for a no holds barred ride of pure hardcore with an album like The Cursed Remain Cursed. Vision of Disorder have never been a band to take things easy and with this album, it's a pure outlet of eleven years of fury, tension and built up rushes of intensity and unreleased energy, bursting out with heart racing velocity and ground shattering heaviness. One listen and the understanding of how serious metal with grooves was in the 1990s is reborn with a whole new relevance and understanding. And in a year where metalcore is really turning back into a musical style where the "core" element really means something, Visions of Disorder are back in action and topping the bills again.

Vision of Disorder's The Cursed Remain Cursed is out now via Candlelight.

Review: Enslaved - RIITIIR

 Truly a band that boasts the most infamous elements of Norway's musical culture in the most glorious of ways, Enslaved have been a pivotal force within the country's metal scene over the past 20 years with consistently interesting, engaging and thrilling works of metal at it's most evil and most progressively thought provoking. The fact that the band's main leaders Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson started this aged 17 and 13 speaks volumes of how much passion and constant intelligence this band has to offer. And it's reflected perfectly on their twelfth album RIITIIR.

 Because Enslaved are such a truly eclectic proposition as bands go, you never really know what to expect as you approach every corner of the album. Sure, you're always going to find yourself being drawn closer into the jaws of death, but you'll do so with utter wonder felt around you, feeling encased within the powerfully blackened and doom laden performance of the band.

 And with this idea that your journey through RIITIIR will be nothing short of epic in a deathly sort of way, the buildup of cathartic screams and chunky riffs on Thoughts Like Hammers is a good way to set listeners off into the apocalyptic charges of frantic riffage from Bjørnson and Arve Isdal and ever dynamic vocal performance of Kjellson, which on the album's mass opener alone transpires from morbid growling during the band's performance at it's blackest and finding itself progressing along with the music into a 

 dirge-based performance alongside the rest of the band, achieving the sense of melancholy so perfectly.

 Along with he first song, such an analogy is mirrored perfectly for the desolate ending of the album on the major Forsaken, a perfect progressive journey from metal at it's most extreme to it's bleakest. But in between these songs there's much to uncover by a band that have progressed so much over their twenty years to such a sophisticated musical proposition.

 We will be indeed treated to the intense charges of this band's history since they and their Norwegian black metal peers first started making kvlt music, through the delirium of Roots of the Mountains to the bashing Death In the Eyes of Dawn, one of the occasional moments of this album paying tribute to the band's early days of setting themselves up as a viking metal band. And of course with Kjellson's most cackle-like vocals on Veilburner bearing a reminiscence to the silliness of Immortal's Abbath, there's always enough hints to the past years of black metal floating around this album.

 On more occasions, Enslaved regularly tread the line between the characteristics of black metal and doom metal on RIITIIR. Cato Bekkevold's tolling drum beat at on the intro of Materal is perhaps the perfect example of such a nature of doom as the full band crashes in with what can only be described as the sound of hopelessness. While the album's title track fairs no better hope of sounding like a summer hit, it's opening of Bjørnson and Isdal's riffage filled with bizarre signature switches sounds more akin to something Neurosis could have composed than anyone from the black metal scene. The doom can't even stay away from the more adrenaline packed moments of the band's playing. The moments that show a power metal influence sound at best like Iron Maiden and Blind Guardian on a severe downer while any dreamier progressive moments sound like the best of Pink Floyd's nightmares.

 And if you wanted something that was uplifting, then maybe you should have thought better than approaching a band that everyone likes to call a black metal group, because with this prolonged misery, bleakness and blackened fury, Enslaved have created an opus of misery for 2012, that may never make you smile again, but proves that after nearly 20 years, Enslaved are still one of the most creative, challenging and thought provoking names in the wave of a genre that meant only trve bands could be respected. And if making the perfect metal album is all about dwelling int he darkness and bitterness then RIITIIR could be one of Enslaved's most trve releases so far. Intelligent, nightmarish and uneasy to handle at first, this is what black metal is all about. This is why Enslaved are legends among the scene.

Enslaved's RIITIIR is out now via Nuclear Blast. The band will tour the UK in March.

Review: Rival Sons - Head Down

 I have a lot of love for Rival Sons, how could you not? With last year's Pressure & Time being a dazzling array of big rock and roll hooks done in a way to evoke memories of the '70's, how could you not feel the love for a band like that? Probably by having a more modern taste that doesn't make you sound like a whinging teenager wishing he lived in the '70's. Anyway, after last year's spectacular release which made it onto the now inexperienced looking Ramblings of a Rock Fan top 50 albums of 2011 list, the band have wasted no time in constructing a follow up that's just as killer, in the form of their third full length release, Head Down.

 While other bands would gladly carry the blues rock title and instead use it the guise to release some bone headed heavy songs, Rival Sons are very much the real deal, playing with the kind of subtly and grace that you can notice in some of the finest soul and blues musicians in history, while being able to rock as hard as any big names in hard rock without losing any sense of that grace. It sounds like some kind of undo-able task, but, I believe I've already established that this band is brilliant.

 This songwriting concept can be noticed across the album as lead single Keep On Swinging opens the album with a selection of blues riffs from Scott Holiday and frontman Jay Buchanan with the positive sound of Led Zeppelin pumped out in a less bombastic characteristic, going for a much greater sense of class in favour, which is summed up perfectly by the ever soulful howling of Buchanan. Even with Robert Everhart's bassline sounding oddly reminiscent of AC/DC's Back in Black, there's an undying sophistication upheld perfectly.

 More than obtaining a sense of class and sophistication, in everything that Rival Sons do on this album, they always just manage to sound cool. Like a constant stream of coolness bursts out of every note the band plays. From the smooth indie melodies and massive vocal hooks of Wild Animal, to the irresistible grooves of All the Way, a song for Buchanan to display the true extent of his showman-like charisma and tell a tale of his life through song in a way that will make all listeners jealous and loving towards him at the same time.

 A lot can be said of Buchanan's vocal performance, yet it's best to hear it at it's best when it comes out during the more delicate moments of the album. The performance of Jordan and True are an outlet for so much emotion, that his perfect smoothness and tone of voice that says a thousand words alone are a perfect way to point at the man being this generation's Robert Plant.

 Beyond this, the band's musical performance is stunning as ever and shows much influence from all kinds of established rock bands that came before them. With it's intros clattering drum solo from Mike Miley, You Want To sounds like the band trying to make a song that continues on from the end of The Who's My Generation, while the guitar work once more from Buchanan is second to none. And once again, the amount of emotion poured out across his five minute solo on Manifest Destiny Pt. 1 is completely captivating and keeps you in the constant flow of guitar lick after lick. That's before the song is followed by Pt. 2 of the song, sounding like a classic blues rendition of the Beastie Boys' Sabotage, a slightly different take on the concept of the band replicating the sound of already established bands.

 Ultimately it's with the shimmering production that keeps each track sounding as crisp and fresh as the album goes along that really allows the band to create a spacious atmosphere that reflects a sense of absolute grandeur. It means the album can always seem like a touching experience as you listen to it again and again. Wouldn't you know, that's how all the critics would describe the best albums of all time?

 

 In the space of a few months, it's wonderful to see a band that has previously shown brilliance come back with something possibly better than the first experience of listening to them for the first time. And this is what Rival Sons have effortlessly done with Head Down. Subtle, grand and still rocking, this is an album that you can be constantly attached to with smoothness that has come from an influence by some of the biggest names in rock and roll and the talent of a band just as good a many of these names. And with the mighty frontman presence of Jay Buchanan, surely a future rock and roll icon, Rival Sons are likely to get some major recognition with this album now. And with recognition being gained for a modern band with the influence from classic rock and blues musicians, as all bands should really have, what is there not to like?

Rival Sons' Head Down is out now via Earache.