Furious straight edge hardcore from Ft. Lauderdale on tap here, and while it’s rife with tired hardcore cliches and structures, it?s one of the better and most conviction filled efforts I’ve heard.
There’s not much to explain here: 14 angry breakdown laden anthems of societal/political disgust (“Tight Lipped Politics”), straight edge pride (“Let’s Get Free”) and anger at the non straight edge folks (almost every other track…). Truth be told, this is one of the most tangibly pissed off and angry records I’ve heard in the genre in a while, towering menacingly over likes of Lahar, Blacklisted, Shattered Realm, Until the End, Doonybrook and such and on par with genre heavyweights Terror and Hatebreed. The vocals are seething and genuinely angry especially when uttering such vitriolic diatribes as “SMOKE YOURSELF TO FUCKING DEATH! (“Wreck”), “EAT SHIT!!!” (“Eat Shit”), “WE KNOW YOU DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT US!!!” (“Hookers & Blow”), “GO FUCK YOURSELF!!?”(Erm. “Go Fuck Yourself”), “FUCK YOUR DRUGS, FUCK YOUR LIFE, FUCK EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW!!!” (“Ingest”), “FREEWILL IS DEAD, YOUR FAITH IS DEAD, MY LOVE IS A LOADED PISTOL AT YOUR HEAD!!” (standout track “Loaded Pistol”) and “I HOPE YOU DIE, CONFESS YOUR FUCKING WEAKNESS!!!!” (“Throwaway’). Nice lads. So these aren’t the type of kids you take to meet granny at the Church bake unless granny wants to spin kick and donkey punch her way to an early grave.
Of course, amid the chunky, power chord thick rants, the album is littered with burly breakdowns, which are done very well; “xBishopx Basically Owns your Face”, “Old Habits”, “Lets Get Free”, “(Life is one Big) Suicide Party”, “Throwaway” all have a tenacious girth of some sort that are no doubt pit inducing calls to arms amid the angry hardcore mob. Album closer “Bless the Dead” initially offers a more moody and introspective pace, (possibly concerning a fallen brother?), but soon ramps things up a typical hardcore lurch and stomp.
Though not a genre I readily listen to voluntarily, xBISHOPx is a band I will dig out whenever I feel the need to break someones face. Of course that’s one I’m done with this beer and smoke….
