Review Summary: We are not your fucking friends. Not now. Not fucking ever.
7 of 7 thought this review was well writtenWould you say you are an angry person? Do you spend the majority of your time trying to come to terms with the sheer volume of things you absolutely cannot stand? I think if I were to choose a word to describe myself it would probably be ‘angry’. That is to say that over the years I’ve become rather bitter and resentful towards practically everything – and yet having said that I still don’t hold a candle to the sheer pissed off fury that seems to have possessed the members of Backstabbers Inc. However don’t get me wrong, this isn’t Converge. There’s no heartbroken whining about that one girl you would have done
anything for, but found one night making out with your best friend. No sir, you’ll find none of that here. Instead the band chooses to hate on just about everything else, running the gamut from meaningless friendships, useless employers and yep, you guessed it, the government too.
Stylistically the band falls into a similar vein as that of the late Cursed or Tragedy, combining visceral hardcore with leanings towards crust punk and a slightly more metallic sound. Unfortunately, as is the case with a great many hardcore releases, the songs do have a tendency to blend into one another and can, somewhat disconcertingly, sound a little similar on first listen. Thankfully this isn’t too big a problem since that one song they appear to be playing over and over again just so happens to be rather ***ing fantastic. Their noisy aural assault is propelled along by an incredibly competent drummer as well as the production of one Kurt Ballou of Converge fame, who has yet to let me down on the production front. The mixing is, for fear of sounding like something straight out of Goldilocks, just right – by that I mean the bass is satisfyingly audible and the killer drumming sticks out amidst the guitars which are used here more for atmosphere than anything particularly flashy.
While
Kamikaze Missions is certainly not flawless, it is an incredibly solid hardcore album by a criminally underlooked band that proves to be a testament to what aggressive music should be. It’s uncompromisingly intense however remains oddly catchy at points - just try listening to the gang chant at the end of ‘Even Slaves Will Be Swimming in the Blood of the Iron Fist’ without wanting to shout along. Go on, I dare you. Gang chants aside, when it comes down to it Backstabbers Inc. ultimately deliver exactly what they set out to, an absolutely scathing social commentary filled to the brink with sheer passion, conviction and nihilistic rage.
