Dirty MoneyThese cats are from thee old city of London and feature members of the soon to be defunct Frightener, who did the split with Pulling Teeth. They list bands like Breakdown, Cromags, Madball, Biohazard, Judge and even mother fucking Big L as influences. Odds are if you get down with Big L, I'm going to get down with you.
This is the CD version of the 7" release which contains 4 new tracks, along with the band's 2006, 3-song demo. What you get here is nothing new, and not even close but it's done fairly well. Just the standard NYHC sound that is indeed very comparable to newer Madball material with some pretty intense vocals. The songs all stick around the 2:30 area and don't really differ too much from one song to next, except from the new songs to the demo that is. And speaking of which, the demo material is definitely winning me over more than the new jams. The old stuff just seems to possess a bit more ‘rage' if you will. If every song was as good as "No One", it would be on, and more breakdowns like the one at the end please.
Ah, I don't know if it's just the fact I've read/heard so many lyrics it just keeps getting harder and harder for me to latch on to something. This is the case here. I can definitely get down with lines like "They're always watching, keeping their tabs, who gives a shit about life when there's money to grab", which is from "Mind In Pieces", which I assume to be about the CCTV surveying the blocks in the UK but other than that these guys don't do it for my lyrically.
The recording leaves something to be desired. It doesn't come off sounding forceful in the least, the guitar tone just seems really weak to me, as does the overall bass tone/presence. The vocal placement isn't bad but the rest of the mix just seems too thin.
I'm from Philly, I like graffiti (fuck you hating ass bitches) and of course I am going to like the simple front cover of a train car hit with a bubble piece, with "Dirty Money" tagged in the bottom left hand corner. The booklet is two panels and just displays the lyrics for the four new songs in green over a black background.
Rating: 3/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: Mind In Pieces and No One
Synopsis: Pretty decent EP, if I would've gotten this 2-3 years ago I may have enjoyed it a bit more but after Cold World got big, as did Guns Up!, these types of bands have strengthened in numbers but dwindled in quality. Check it out and decide for yourself.