Review Summary: On their full-length debut, Candy serve up a short, sweet, and violent slab of noisy hardcore.
The first thing that might grab your attention about Candy’s latest offering is the album’s ridiculous cover art: it’s nasty, violent, and wild as hell— a perfect visual representation of the hardcore rollercoaster ride that is
Good to Feel.
Sonically and structurally, this is a hardcore record through and through. Candy thrashes through
Good to Feel’s seventeen minutes at a breakneck pace, dishing out your standard caveman riffs and murderous two-steps. It is clear that the Richmond upstarts have a healthy appreciation for hardcore stalwarts like Integrity, Terror, and to a lesser extent, Burning Love (which can be heard in the band’s chunky HM-2 drenched tone and punk n’ roll leanings).
Upon first listen,
Good to Feel might feel like your typical hardcore affair; crunchy punk rock riffs serve as a backdrop for lyrics that cover a myriad of familiar topics in the genre (police brutality, social unrest and justice, etc). There are plenty of punishing grooves and untamed solos to keep fans of the genre satisfied. However, this record isn’t without its fair share of surprises: lumbering melodic grooves dominate songs like “Distorted Dreams,” while album closer “Bigger than Yours” briefly incorporates dreamy shoegazy stylings before dissolving into a wall of harsh noise to finish things off.
At just shy of eighteen minutes, it is nearly impossible for
Good to Feel to overstay its welcome. It is an efficient and masterful slab of hardcore that manages to weave a handful of clever ideas within the bedlam.
Good to Feel is filled to the brim with thrashing, hardcore punk riffage and soaring solos that are guaranteed to keep listeners at the edge of their seats for the entirety of its brief runtime. Candy’s full-length debut is a short and noisy affair that throws enough curveballs to show listeners what the band is really capable of.
