Review Thursday: Madball, Abandon All Ships and Defeater
Defeater
Travels
Topshelf
To say that Defeater is a groundbreaking band is saying little for this Massachusetts five-piece. They combine new, progressive-style hardcore with the old-school punk attitude of using music as a form of political expression. Every song on Travels is a story; the lyrics are poetic and enthralling while the music sets the tone of the tale. Far too often, lyrics are held for nothing in hardcore. So many albums can be chalked up to a few standards including songs about brotherhood, friends are family, respect, and all that other tough guy bullshit. The fact is we need bands like Defeater, a change from the status quo of music as we know it. If you don't like hardcore, you should still consider giving this album a try, it’s a musical poem, a story of man and how we treat each other, a story that needs to be told.
Abandon All Ships
Geeving
Universal Canada
Fans of floppy haircuts, rejoice! Canada's answer to the bourgeoning synthcore (yes, little Timmy, unfortunately this is now a real subgenre of hardcore music) scene has released their first album, Geeving, and if this is the shit catches on then I will be shocked, dismayed, and unsurprised. The band's mixture of hardcore breakdowns, clubby keyboard lines as well as Autotuned clean vocals is perfect for every ADHD-addled 16 year-old who strives to be understood. Opening track "Bro My God" (unfortunately, the band seems to love the word "bro") sets the tone for the rest of the album: clean production, growls, electronic stutters and a midsection involving clean vocals and keyboards make the band's M.O. apparent.
Mercifully the album's short (10 songs in a little over a half-hour's worth of time) and so sitting through it is not a Dream Theater-tastic task, although these MuchMusic disBAND sweethearts have one major problem: whole song sections could be easily interchangeable with others, lending an air of disposability to the entire record.
I'm going to go ahead and give it a pity point for trying, and a point for trying to mix different styles of music, but apart from the novelty factor there isn't much here to cheer on.
Madball
Empire
Good Fight Music
The newest album from Madball is a far cry from the 12 year old Freddy singing with his older brothers band (Roger Miret of Agnostic Front, who also does guest vocals on the Empire song "Shatterproof"). Since its inception in the late '80s the band has seen a major line-up change swapping out Agnostic Front members for a dedicated crew. A few members came and went, most noticeably the addition of drummer Jay Weinberg (son of the legendary Max Weinberg) who recorded the album with Madball but was recently “released” from the band. Though the input from Weinberg may have been minimal, the album is a solid effort from the New York Hardcore kings. Crushing rhythms, beating breakdowns and anthemic choruses bring us back to why we love Madball in the first place. On the other hand, this album is not all hardcore; parts of it reminds me of early Pantera, minus Dimebag Darrell.
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