Review Summary: "Are you ready for some f***ing pain?"
Digital hardcore is an interesting genre. Existing since the early 90s thanks to Alec Empire and his group Atari Teenage Riot, it became insanely popular on the underground music scene, especially towards the end of the aforementioned decade. It was characterized by the sounds of gabber, drum n bass and techno, mixed with the heaviness of hardcore punk and heavy metal, and while most of the groups in the genre were European, the US wasn't left from the sound and influences of the genre, with one band in particular doing the digital hardcore sound, along with influences from Nu Metal, industrial music and Post-Hardcore; that band was The Shizit.
Formed around 1998 by vocalist JP Anderson, and guitarist Brian Schroder (tell me if I got his name wrong), they released their debut EP one year later, titled Evil Inside. And this is one hell of a debut. To put it simply on words, never on my life have I listened to such a chaotic experience of digital hardcore, and these guys basically brought everything, and a little bit more. The highlights of this EP are definitely the tracks "Gak Bitch" and "Green Lacer Wins", which right away show the aggressiveness of their sound and subject matter in their lyrics. About the lyrics, they are a big f-you to politics and world issues, and while they're not deeply explored here than in the much-more politicized "Soundtrack For the Revolution", vocalist JP Anderson sounds seriously pissed, with the entire album showcasing his vocal versatility with "into-your-face" screaming, quiet clean singing, and rapping, with his vocals going along with the guitars, creating an atmosphere of anger and chaos that not much of many Digital Hardcore bands could accomplish.
Despite the lyrics being pretty similar to the geniality of RATM, and awesome aggressiveness, the album is really old, and for the obvious lack of a professional studio for them to have recorded on, the album sounds really lo-fi, that would really tick off audiophiles. You can't really tell if what you're hearing on the background are guitars, synths, the heavy breakbeats, or the three. And also when JP miraculously stars to sing, after a destructive scream session, his vocals sound really quiet, to the point you can't hear him right behind the beats, which are unnecessarily loud. Also, the guitar riffs may get really repetitive and generic after a while, however it's understandable, since the band is more about their impact than their technicality.
Overall, "Evil Inside" is a must-hear for digital hardcore and industrial metal fans, even if you would probably dislike the low quality of the EP's sound, and if you want more quality, you'd better off listening to the cleaner "Script Kiddie" (which has re-recordings of certain songs), and the full-length "Soundtrack For the Revolution". For those wondering what came to be after The Shizit's unfortunate short run, Anderson currently leads the industrial band Rabbit Junk along with his wife, stage name "Sum Gurrl", which while mostly sounding softer than his previous band, has even harder tracks, but that's another band, another sound.
Recommended tracks:
Gak Bitch
Green Lacer Wins
32-Bit Whore
Least favorite tracks:
Post Human
