What’s In The Box? This weeks most played releases
on July 1st, 2011This week’s most played releases around the office are new ones from Adelaide’s Coerce, aging punk outfit Adolescents, upbeat youngsters Set Your Goals, and the bonecrushing new one from Earth Crisis. Click below to expand this post and find out a little more about each release with a few short thoughts on each one.
COERCE – Etheral Surrogate Saviour (Capitalgames Records) [More About It / Purchase]
Second album from these Adelaide guys, not an instant heart-starter, but an album to ease into. The kind of album that won’t work unless you are in the mood for what they offer. Find that mood though, and you’ll be hooked. I don’t listen all that much to similar stuff so I can’t give you reference artists, but I can tell you this one is a solid listen once digested. Plenty of creativity, originality and a fine production too. Highlights for me are, ‘Ash White Smoke’, ‘Prince Welfare’ and the closer ‘Five Thousand’. It’s always refreshing to step away from the same ol’, same ol’, so an album like this is very handy to keep at arms reach. Give it a go.
———————————-
ADOLESCENTS – The Fastest Kid Alive (Concrete Jungle Records) [More About It / Purchase]
Into their latest stint of being re-united is this long running punk outfit. This one is a fifteen track affair and while they may be aging they can still pump out a pretty good tune. Catchy, quick punk rock just as they are known for. More for the fans of the older style of pop-punk than what’s around these days, but it’d do no harm for the younger breed to give this one a run. Highlights include ‘Serf City’, ‘Too Fast Too Loud’ and ‘One Nation Under Seige’. Band still has Australian tour dates for August on their website, yet no local promoter has made any kind of announcement as yet. Keep eyes peeled I guess, it may happen, it may not. Not their best, but a good listen.
———————————-
SET YOUR GOALS – Burning At Both Ends (Epitaph Records) [More About It / Purchase]
Never really been into these guys in the past beyond a couple of tracks here and there, couldn’t find a click and found it all a little tacky. This one though, while still having a few shudder worthy moments, has the band step up a notch, in my mind anyway. I found plenty of appeal in this one, despite the sound being stupidly overdone at the moment, they’ve pumped out some of the better tunes in the genre on this album. Highlights being ‘Happy New Year’, ‘Unconditional’ and ‘Illuminated Youth’. Stay away from ‘Product Of The 80′s’ and ‘The Last American Virgin’ though. Overall, I reckon it’s their best yet.
———————————-
EARTH CRISIS – Neutralize The Threat (Century Media) [More About It / Purchase]
They don’t lie in the bio when they say this is the band’s hardest hitting album in recent memory. You want tough hardcore, you want this album. Sure they are now a different band to way back when, but they still pack a punch, and land it too. With so much watered down hardcore around in recent years you’ve kinda had to go searching for the needle in the haystack. Earth Crisis shoot the needle right at you on this album. It’s in your face, uncompromising hardcore punk. Highlights include ‘Askari’, ‘Counterstrike’ and ‘Raze’. Not for the soft breed.
———————————-
Punknews.org