Wake Up CallHere we go, here we go, another straight ahead hardcore effort from Maine, following on the heels of their native Maine brothers, On The Outside (Thorp Records), who recently released their full length not too far back. This CDEP includes six new jams with their 5 song 2005 demo, which got a nice re-mastered touch. These straight edgers have the 88" Revelation Records sound down pact, you can definitely hear the Underdog influence seeping through their sound. They play it short and sweet, with no filler necessary. Out of the 11 tracks herein, only one breaks the 2 minute mark, some songs get close to 2 minutes while others rage short of a minute. These guys aren’t trying to reinvent the book, rather they throw in a few plays of their own. They opt to use a bare bones framework making sure to throw in plenty of sped up verses, plenty of gang shouts and strong use of soaring solo leads. The singer definitely has that old school bounce to his voice, most notably on the demo part of the album. While musically I would prefer the 6 new tracks to the demo, vocally, however I really dug the demo. For what ever reason when I was listening to the closing track, "It Ain’t Worth It" at about the 1:12 break, it was like I was listening to CIV’s big brother singing, it sent chills down my spine. Either way this guy nails everything he shouts on, the spoken part in the Wake Up outro is like some straight Judge type shit. I wish half the bands today paying homage to the old school brand of hardcore had a singer like this guy. The lyrics are some quality shit, for the most part they stick to more abstract ways of getting their straight edge message across rather than being overly blunt. So instead of alienating the non edge kids, they welcome them in. So for that they get big ups from me, a man who listens to shit loads of sxe hardcore while being the furthest thing from straight. Now in regards to the production aspects of the release , it is about as good as it gets for this type of music. It walks the line between a raw late 80's sound with the advantages of modern day recording. The feedback and ringing out of the intro leads sounds fucking good as shit. The artwork definitely enhances this release, it’s some nasty shit actually. It’s got a disfigured cartoon dude getting his eyelid bitten and pulled on by a rat while his rat buddy feasts on his scalp and brain, by the time you get to the back cover the rats have pretty much devoured all but the guys one eye. The colors are dark, bold and earthly, much more fitting than if it was some happy colorful rats.
Rating: 4/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: It ain’t worth it, Friends/Foes, Under Their Control
Thesis: If you were listening to your entire Revelation Records collection from 88 and threw this on you wouldn’t be able to tell this come out in the last month. If you’re a fan of Revelation, Straight Edge, or straight up good hardcore you should definitely check this one out.