All Out War have been in the scene for a long time now. Their roots go back to 1990. Well, this is their new opus, eight full length if I am not mistaken. Well, All Out War play what we used to call new school back in the nineties and it is basically metalized hardcore, not unlike old school godfathers of the genre, like Earth Crisis or Integrity, even Snapcase. Behind all of the guitar thrash influenced brutality, there are couple of real catchy and melodic hooks and even some street hardcore punk influenced fast song parts. Singer Mike Score screams, growls, shouts and the album as a whole I could describe as apocalyptic hardcore with no holds barred. Many blast beats, almost death metal like, noisy in between atmospheric parts, air raid wicked evil guitar parts and thundering bass. I never witnessed All Out War deliver their music live, I am sure their shows are blood, sweat and hardcore all over. My personal favorites on this one are: ‘Glorious Devastation’, ‘Revel In Misery’, ‘Celestial Rot’. Good one.
Parker’s Burden are hailing from Atlanta, Georgia and this is their brand new release containing 15 songs. This is melodic hardcore punk/skate punk the way I love to hear it. That means simple, without complicating things straightforward fast songs, great vocals, all those sing and hum along backing vocal harmonies, divine guitar line melodies and energy topped with great lyrics. I can also hear double bass drums in some songs, so that metallic influence is fantastic too. If I must compare Parker’s Burden to some other band, it would be Satanic Surfers and all of their hitters from nineties, fast and no holds barred melodic punk. The lyrics on this album are clever mix of political, with critics about destruction of environment, corruption and decline of humanity, but also they deal with trying to swim against the tide in this world, religion and hypocrisy, senseless war from the point of ordinary man and woman, so I must say, lyrics are superb. My personal favorites on this one are: ‘The Last’, ‘War’s End’, ‘The Last Thing You Hear’. This is a great melodic punk record.
Gary Bushell is famous British writer, journalist, columnist, comedian and what not. Well, he once worked for a magazine which was legendary in punk and ska scene during the eighties so he decided to tell his best stories and anecdotes in couple of books, thematically divided into metal, hard rock, punk, ska years. This one is about punk and ska years and it contains many interesting and great stories and what I love about and miss a lot in regular biographies, being anecdotes and stories from the road. I will mention only couple that I found most interesting to read in this book, that being Judge Dread, Bad Manners, Blondie, The Cockney Rejects, then boxing match organized by The Eurythmics because Garry wrote bad intro about them in Sounds and so on. I was also interesting about Lars Fredriksen’s of Rancid fame life of crime, juvenile home, stealing and taking drugs. This is bare truth, ugly and funny. Not something to remember forever, but decent book.
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