Some weeks, we throw out our Picks and remark upon the range that exists between the far ends of the albums that grab our attention.
Not this time. Our latest trio of recommended new releases is firmly rooted in the varied world of hardcore, from the riff-happy rocking punk of Every Time I Die to perfect poison from Trap Them.
Cruel Hand
Your World Won’t Listen
Hopeless Records
[Spotify]
Your World Won’t Listen has slightly slipped through the cracks in terms of writing up this review in a busy spell, but it’s by no means inferior to the records we recommended last week. It’s a thumping chunk of metallic hardcore, littered with riffs that are cooler than cool. ‘Dead Eyes Watching’, ‘Through With You’ and ‘Too Far From That’ pack some of the best, and ‘Decompose’ is a flat-out banger whichever way you look at it. The vocals are distinctive and splash out lines that are infectious in the extreme. If you want a hardcore record to party too as the summer comes to a close, you could do an awful lot worse.
Every Time I Die
Low Teens
Epitaph
[Spotify]
Buffalo riffmeisters Every Time I Die are, for one half of This Decay, one of the all-time greats, so you could be forgiven for thinking this review is biased. It isn’t; Low Teens is not only the best hardcore release of 2016 and one of the albums of the year full stop, it’s also arguably ETID’s finest hour. The riffs are some of the best this band has every dug out of their guitars, while vocally this is definitely Keith Buckley’s magnum opus, both in terms of content and delivery. ‘Glitches’, ‘I Didn’t Want to Join Your Stupid Cult Anyway’ and ‘Religion of Speed’ all slam, while they even find room to accommodate Brandon Urie. This record is an absolute joy and shows just how far ahead of their peers ETID are and will always be.
Trap Them
Crown Feral
Prosthetic Records
[Spotify]
It doesn’t get much uglier than US grinding crust beasts Trap Them, and their fifth full-length album is in no regard a disruption from their renowned consistency. Crown Feral is a lean, mean and gnarly celebration of hardcore’s extreme fringe, and is delivered in characteristically vitriolic fashion. ‘Hellionaires’ ignites the record and is more than ably followed by ‘Luster Pendulums’ and the fabulous ‘Speak Nigh’, but the raw fact of the matter is that singling out individual tracks is pretty silly. This album is entirely without fat and waste, allowing its study in nastiness to be undiluted and of the highest standard.
Send us your sounds: picks@thisdecay.com
Don’t forget: you can buy WAVE’s debut EP The First Wave digitally, or as part of a Limited Edition physical run, from our Bandcamp page.
