To be honest if you weren’t a fan of the band before then you probably won’t be now. With that out of the way the dudes in Full Blown Chaos have made another awesome and brutal as fuck album. Filled with hate and malevolence, Full Blown Chaos goes for the throat and the merciless beating doesn’t let up until the album runs its course.

Sure the band is unoriginal as far as originality goes I mean with all the slayer-esque thrash riffs and ridiculously heavy breakdowns. But to be honest who fucking cares because what they play they play well.

Now of course there are a few songs on this beast of an album that stand out from the rest. Most notably “Silence Is Golden” with its ridiculous thrash solo mid way through instantly bringing to mind days of the old. Eventually another guitar joins the fold and its mouth watering goodness from their on out. “Villains” keeps it brutal with black metal tremolo and a more death metal tinged sound. “Rise and Conquer” is perhaps their most hardcore song they ever done; complete with an awesome finger pointing, stage diving, pile-on-esque chorus. “Gravedigger” adds a beatdown hardcore edge while adding some melodic riffage and the Crowbar -ish “The Path I Walk” is such a great way to end the album. A more metal based riff fest that closes with a tasty breakdown.

One of the gripes most people would have with an album of this nature is probably the swearing in the lyrics. Believe me when I say this but theirs more swearing here then there is on an Eminem album. But when it comes down to it I’d rather hear these dudes swearing all over the place then some lame fake heavy scene band with wussy looking members.

It’s hardcore and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but if you do however fancy a little hardcore in your life then by all means check these dudes out.

Massachusetts’ The Acacia Strain are proud to announce a summer 2008 headlining tour across the United States. Dubbed the ‘Sun Your Bunz’ Tour, and featuring support from All Shall Perish, The Warriors, Eternal Lord and Since The Flood, the tour with cross America from late-May into late-June. A tour admat is also available online here .

The run will be in anticipation of The Acacia Strain’s forthcoming album, Continent, which is scheduled for release later this year through Prosthetic Records.

Meanwhile, the band has posted a pre-production song entitled “Dr. Doom” from Continent on The Acacia Strain’s MySpace page. The band will head into the studio April 13 with producer Zeuss (Hatebreed, Shadows Fall, Municipal Waste) at Planet Z studio, and pre-production for Continent has already been completed. For Continent, The Acacia Strain has again tapped artist Paul Romano (Mastodon, The Red Chord, Trivium), who handled the artwork for the band’s previous release, The Dead Walk, which saw a June 2006 release via Prosthetic Records.

Having just played a handful of Canadian shows in March as well as completing a successful headlining tour with Despised Icon, Full Blown Chaos, and The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza in November and December of 2007, The Acacia Strain will also play a hometown show April 26 in Worcester, Mass. as part of the 10th annual New England Metal and Hardcore Festival.

The Acacia Strain on tour

4/26 Worcester, MA – The Palladium (New England Metal and Hardcore Festival)

(Sun Your Bunz Tour with All Shall Perish, The Warriors, Since The Flood)

5/30 Buffalo, NY – Michalina’s Bistro

5/31 Kettering, OH – The Attic Club

6/01 Warren, MI – The Ritz

6/02 Chicago, IL – Reggie’s Rock Club

6/03 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock Social Club

6/05 Fargo, ND – Aquarium

6/06 Omaha, NE – Sokol Underground

6/07 Denver, CO – Marquis Theatre

6/09 Boise, ID – The Venue

6/10 Spokane, WA – The Boulevard

6/11 Seattle, WA – Studio Seven

6/12 Portland, OR – Satyricon

(Sun Your Bunz Tour with All Shall Perish, Eternal Lord, Since The Flood)

6/13 Orangevale, CA – The Boardwalk (with The Warriors)

6/14 Anaheim, CA – Chain Reaction

6/15 San Bernardino, CA – Hudson Theatre

6/16 Bakersfield, CA – Jerry’s Pizza

6/18 Tucson, AZ – The Rock

6/19 El Paso, TX – Chic’s Bar and Billiards

6/20 Austin, TX – Red 7

6/21 Lewisville, TX – Fat Daddy’s Sound Shack

6/22 Tulsa, OK – Crush Lounge

6/24 Nashville, TN – The Muse

6/26 Fredericksburg, VA – KC’s Music Alley

6/27 Lemoyne, PA – Champion Ship

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“Technically adept, and perhaps even challenging to the unseasoned metal listener, The Dead Walk is clearly the strongest effort to date from New England scene stars The Acacia Strain.” – Alternative Press magazine

“It’s The Acacia Strain’s rationale that makes them somewhat of a standout: there isn’t an established category called “Heavy As Fuck.” – Unrestrained! magazine

“It could be one of the big extreme releases of the year…the guys have streamlined their sound and their lineup, creating a solid disc heavy on breakdowns and with no shortage of metal riffs all over the place.” – Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine

“Think the oppressive groove of Mastodon with the stodgy beats of Throwdown, and the hellish screams of your childhood nightmares. This is the sort of noise that makes dogs whimper, mountains shudder, babies cry and your mates dance – all at the same time.” – Metal Hammer magazine

“Quite clearly the art of sophisticated bloodthirsty tech metal is entering a new renaissance period and it is albums like this that are leading the charge.” – The PRP

Fortunately ‘Fire Fight,’ firmly quashes any fears of the band ditching their leaden metallic hardcore in favour of rousing battle anthems about glory, honour and death. Not only is the song one of the longest the band has ever written, it is indicative of how much the band have grown since their self titled debut but affirms that potential maturity that was hinted on the preceding Within the Grasp of Titans.

Often with the predecessor it felt as though everything had been hastily cobbled together, great riffs were cut short, songs lacked depth or intricacy to make them worth revisiting and after a few gripping first spins its impact deadened each time there after. Now of course this band isn’t looking to write material that is bursting with a plethora of immeasurable complexities that require, in fact, demand the listener to listen. On the contrary Full Blown Chaos’s strength was (like their peers and brethren) to make tectonically charged skull crushing metallic hardcore that was heavy on impact. This simply didn’t happen on their previous record but Heavy Lies The Crown, addresses all those nagging discrepancies that hindered Within The Grasp Of Titans.

Take the triumvirate of ‘Halos for Heroes,’ ‘Fail Like A Champ,’ and the mighty title track, all are dripping with bright, crunching riffs, Mazzola’s gruff bark and pounding beats laid down by Jeff Facci. At the centre though are those riffs as Jeff’s brother Mike writes some of his best since ‘Prophet of Hostility.’ Most impressive though is how well the sound has assimilated itself and become holistic; Heavy Lies The Crown, is so above the jaded tough hardcore band playing metal with breakdowns in which the breakdowns serve as a protective canvas to mask how woefully average the metal is.

Not only does Full Blown Chaos fully prove their metal credentials (although not in that aforementioned Manowar manner) the breakdowns aren’t used for this purpose. Rather, they are so seamless, so intrinsic and resonate within the structure of the entire composition so that when they do hit they don’t become the memorable moment of the song.

The band triumphantly close the record with ‘Mojave Red,’ a two part, two track juxtaposition and exploration of melody and brutality, a real first for the band (who on part 1 have never been so tranquil) which lingers seductively for 4 odd minutes before being blasted away by part 2’s relentless barrage.

Of course the primary criticism that will arise towards this record is that nothing the band has done here is revolutionary, groundbreaking and all the other superlative critical criteria of the reviewing paradigm that scribes pander and adhere too. This is true, but when music is this well executed and with such conviction does it really matter if the band is groundbreaking?