tyler, I believe, is the name of the gentleman.
he screams at me through these jacked, half functional, $10-and-change earbuds. half the time the percussion cuts out due to poor wiring, but the words still come through crystal:
"MY DRUG FREE, PROCLAMATION,
MY STRAIGHT EDGE, INCLINATION"
it's weird hearing something so foreign to my lifestyle and yet, having it feel so intense, so close to home. the way these half-preachy, half-epitaphic words come across, it seems impossible in my world frame to deny the pure emotion in what's being conveyed. every line in "When Fear Turns To Confidence" rings eerily clear in detesting self-poisoning and self-destruction, with such vigor; one could say I'm already at the local ink parlor with 3 x's lined up, with a substance or two still in the system.
funny how influential intent, and perceived emotion can be, yea?
another example of such a thought, instrumentally, this work is fairly run of the mill structurally, when compared to similar modern hardcore. slow intro. speed it up. break that ***. slow it down. beat it down. rinse and repeat in various orders. the wheel: 2, am I right? but regardless, these exceptionally angular riffs and patterns are played with such vigor, it's easy to overlook the familiarity of patterns, in exchange for complete, ignorant enjoyment of the rowdy experience this 5 track monolith brings forth.
now yea, it might be in a slight bit of hyperbole to call this a monolith on paper. guilty. alas, the way these riffs devolve from mid tempo, punky romps, into dragged-out, brooding, beatdown, brawl bait, is genuinely something to marvel at. the title track does this in an especially exceptional manner, dropping that nasty two-step pattern into the most beautiful release of bone-crushing chugs known to man. poetic in sound, really.
now, regardless of my personal admiration of how beautiful these sections are brought together, it does little justice pointing out singular moments in such a way, since most the fantastic moments can really be boiled down to "two step beat into slow breakdown part". i can't quite say it's lost on me, unfortunately. but really, to appreciate such an outing, the nuance is as key as can be. for example, how the feedback holds right before the guitar drops near the end of Vagrant, or how the line of, "AS LONG AS I LIVE I WILL BE ***ING POISON FREE" hangs right before the last hell-inducing seconds of Uninhibited. these small moments that inclination have masterfully came to understand are an essential reason why this album, as trite as it can be in moderation (especially given the lyrical content), was made in such a unique, powerful fashion.
