Signed With HateThis five piece cometh from Central, New Jersey and play that typical bulldozing metallic hardcore that we've grown to love and expect from New Jersey. This 11 song full length serves as the bands formal introduction to the hardcore community, having only released some demos prior to it's unleashing.
It's hard to deny that Slayer has had a huge impact on the current sound of hardcore. Just as their fellow natives Shattered Realm, Second To None, and NJ Bloodline have done in the past, Signed With Hate fuse together the Slayer-esque riffing with breakdowns heavier than a slab of marble but make sure not to forget their roots from bands like Agnostic Front, Gorilla Biscuits, etc,. So obviously, you know what you're getting, nothing you haven't already heard from countless other bands. What it comes down to is execution, without it, this release could've easily gone the other way and be another album lost in the sea of thousands.
Aside from execution, another thing that this album has going for it is the length of the songs. They wisely avoided dragging songs out. For the most part the songs are between 2-3 minutes but they do have a song under 2 minutes, shit even a track under a minute.
Just by reading the title of album you should know what you're getting into lyrically. The songs deal with the dark undercurrent of mankind. Just as with the music, these ideas aren't anything new, I mean how many songs have been titled, "Bad Blood" and "Dead Wrong", etc,.? Again, execution is key to success and even though the themes aren't ground breaking, they do a good job of mixing up the lyrics of betrayal and lyrics about the abomination known as mankind.
The production was handled by New Alliance East (Converge, On Broken Wings, The Red Chord). It was mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side (The Black Dahlia Murder, Black My Heart, etc.) For the most part, the production qualities sound pretty solid; the vocals are dead on, the drums sound good, they have a good dense sound, the guitar has good tone but it is a bit thin. My main problem with the recording is that it lacks that extra umph. Maybe if the bass had more presence to round out the recording or even if the guitar had more punch to it, it would go a long way in making this thing completely crush your stereo system. Good but it could've been better.
To complete the package (no pun intended) is the albums great layout that was handled by the fine folks at The Apparatus Revolution. The front cover was drawn in a comic book style showing a ambulance tearing through what appears to be the Jersey shore. Inside the booklet looks fucking spectacular; all of the lyrics are displayed to look as if they were printed in a newspaper with comic book illustrations tying into the lyrical content. A great idea that was executed extremely well. Another great thing about the layout is the CD title explanation that lays on the tray art, it was nice to read an in-depth description of the album title.
Rating: 4/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: Among The Faithless, The Worst Intentions They'll Kill Us All, What Doesn't Kill You
Thesis: The band definitely succeeded in putting out an album that sounds like New Jersey hardcore should. From top to bottom this is some burly metallic hardcore influenced by the mid 90's stuff. If you like bands like Shattered Realm, All Out War, etc., you'll love this shit. There is a MP3 on the bottom of the website, so check it out, if you like what you hear make sure you pick this up for a small fee of $9 from EternalHopeRecords.com.