Time for a bit of melodic hardcore to grace the pages of this webzine. Fucked Up are hailing from Ontario, Canada and they recently released their new album containing ten songs. Although the name already says it, this is hardcore par excellence. Fucked Up play their vision of melodic hardcore punk with many stop and go change of tempo, modern hooks and melodies but remaining with both feet solid in punk rock roots rather than metallic hardcore that more and more takes over the scene these days. This vision of hardcore is harsh in vocals, but also melodic and up tempo and sometimes made me fell good and filled me with energy listening to this one. Songs like ‘I Think I Might Be Weird’, ‘Nothing’s Immortal’ or ‘One Day’ won me over with their humor, real life lyrics to which you can relate, auto irony of sorts and above all great songwriting. This is a good band and good record.
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.
Layback are from south London area and this is their latest e.p. containing five songs. What to expect here? This is pretty raw old school street hardcore, fast and furious with angry shouting vocals, but with also a touch of melodic hardcore, skate punk and metallic influence in the song structures. The e.p. is short but energetic with groove, moshing parts flying by and joining fast hardcore which dominates this release with fast drumming, some background guitar solos behind the verses reminding me of early Suicidal Tendencies. My personal favorites are ‘Back in the Bits’, ‘Times Like These’ and ‘Streets of Fire’ Good UK hardcore band and their e.p. Check this one out.
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