Half Life What’s Right cassette
A totally excellent thrasharama. This band is tight as hell, delivers powerful music and lyrics, and seems really dedicated.
MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL
A totally excellent thrasharama. This band is tight as hell, delivers powerful music and lyrics, and seems really dedicated.
One of the better sounding domestic HC releases in a while. Good power and production on all four tracks, and although it’s mainly generic metal-influenced hardcore, there’s a gripping urgency that carries it off. Lyrics are pretty bleak, although “Consider the Alternative” offers some hopeful thought.
REAL ENEMY combines fairly unusual thrash structures with a distinctive treatment of subject matter, and the result is a very worthwhile debut. Although the music is engaging, the really unique thing about this tape is the thoughtful explanation of some of the songs, an approach other bands could benefit from.
Very, very good lyrics set to a fast-paced thrash with guitar leads. The band’s really tight, but I found the soloing a bit detracting from their overall impact, which was very favorable. Power and intelligence.
Excellent capture of Pennsylvania’s UPPER HAND’s last show, where they absolutely leveled a club called Sonic Temple in 1989. Off-the-fucking-rails East Coast hardcore that is way harder than most bands dared to be at the close of the Reagan era, this recording sounds amazing and helps make up for the fact that they never had any proper releases during their short existence. A record clearly released by fans (and one that will likely gain the band some new ones—like me), including a full-size zine with band history, and tons of flyers to accompany a ripping set that ends (appropriately) with FAITH, BAD BRAINS, and AF covers. There are only a few of these kicking around, highly recommended.
