Review: Left for Dead - Devoid of Everything

Left for Dead

Devoid of Everything

A389 Recordings

Anyone familiar with Left for Dead knows that it’s nearly a foregone conclusion that a review written about them by a hardcore fan is going to be glowingly positive. So let’s just get this out of the way: I love Left for Dead.  And yes, I giggled like a school girl when I found out they were releasing this discography and recording new material. Also, anyone familiar with Hamilton, Ontario will not be surprised to find out that there was a time in the late-90s/early 00s that this city consistently produced the most angry, fast, metallic hardcore Canada had to offer.  The epitome of this working-class-teen aggression came from Left for Dead, led by Chris Colohan (Swarm/Cursed/Burning Love) and Jeff Beckman (Chokehold/Haymaker/Pick Your Side).

My only issue with Left for Dead up to this point was their piss-poor production.  Now, as a fan of both hardcore and black metal, I’m really not caught off-guard by bad recordings and production, but I always knew that it was an injustice that such a furious band had such flat, tinny sounding recordings.  Fortunately, thanks to a complete remastering from the original ¼” reels by Kevin Bernsten and James Plotkin, the days of Left for Dead sounding like garbage are over!  I’ve never considered myself an audiophile in the sense that I don’t obsess over sound quality (I either listen to music on my $100 record player or on my phone at 128kpbs) but the change in quality between Devoid of Everything and Splitting Heads (or any other release) is unbelievable.  And to anyone who is about to get nostalgic and talk about how they hate remasterings...you are wrong.  Flat out.  Devoid of Everything is the best that Left for Dead has ever sounded, on any format.  It’s heavier, crunchier, warmer, cleaner, and finally gives this band the sound they’ve always deserved.

In other words, you can now listen to songs like “Eight Floors Above”, “Who Do You Know?” and “Left For Dead” and they will be even more crushing and aggressive-sounding then they previously were...and these are some of the most destructive, scream-your-guts-out confrontational songs I had ever heard....and now they are remastered and even more obscenely heavy.

Go buy it now!

Review: Pick Your Side - Snakes and Ladders

Pick Your Side

Snakes & Ladders

RSR/Hate Ape Productions

Tracklisting:

1. Thru Veins

2. Bleeding Out

3. This is Not a Test

4. Throne of Privilege

5. But Wait!!

6. Don’t Cry (Neil Young cover)

7. Snakes and Ladders

When Pick Your Side started putting out music last year, I was simply relieved that something violent, angry and Haymaker-esque was coming out of Hamilton again.  Beyond that, I honestly didn’t expect much, let alone steady output and even semi-regular gigs to attend.  Fortunately, the boys in PYS seem to have some momentum behind them because they are back with their second 7”, and from what I understand, will be recording a 2^nd LP for A389 in the not-too-distant future.  

This offering, Snakes and Ladders, picks up where Survival Prayer and Let Me Show You How Democracy Works left off.  The first four tracks offer up the same vitriolic, thrashy hardcore that they have become known for, and don’t away from subject matter ranging from betrayal (“Picture your life as a knife fight and you just got stabbed in the guts”) to middle class privilege (“...point blame in protest in the words you sing your bullshit songs, won’t change a thing.”). 

The next couple tracks, “But Wait!!” and “Don’t Cry” reveal the metal/sludge roots that this band also has.  “But Wait!!” is a nice mix of hardcore and metal, which just adds a dynamic element to the record that is welcomed, but “Don’t Cry” might take a little for some PYS fans to get used to.  Why, you ask?  Because it’s a droning, sludgy Neil Young cover that clocks in at over 7 minutes.  Yup, you heard me right.  I really enjoyed it from the 2^nd listen onwards (I was a bit too thrown off by it at first), and love that this band truly doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks of them or what they should be doing.

You can’t buy it yet (unless you go to one of their shows on their European tour or at Not Dead Yet Fest in Toronto), but you can listen to it here.

Review: Pick Your Side - Let Me Show You How Democracy Works

Pick Your Side

Let Me Show You How Democracy Works

A389 Recordings

Track Listing:
1. Dark Future
2. Plug-In Generation
3. More Cops, More Crime!
4. Meltdown
5. How to Cope
6. Looking Back
7. Paranoid or Prepared?
8. This Too Shall Pass
8. My Troubles
10. Ham Sandwich
11. Doomsday Demise
12. It Could Be Better...
13. Matter of Time
14. New War
15. It's All Your Fault
16. No Good Will Come From This
17. 2 Headed Snake
18. Right Turn

As someone who grew up in the late 90's Southern Ontario hardcore scene, Haymaker was a band to be both revered and feared. If you are unfamiliar with their threat-filled lyrics, violent live shows, and general disdain for most things on earth, then you have some catching up to do.  Getting to witness Haymaker's mayhem live was a rare opportunity to see what it was to be truly angry at the world and finally have a platform from which to scream.  In short, it was everything hardcore should be.  Fast. Angry. Political. And bullshit-free.

Saying that I had high hopes for Pick Your Side's first full length would be an understatement. A rabid Haymaker fan, and longtime supporter of Fuck the Facts, when I heard that members from these two bands were forming a group I was thoroughly excited in every non-sexual way imaginable.  Having said that, I knew that such anticipation can often lead to disappointment and 'bands were better when I was younger'-type attitudes rather quickly.  Fortunately, Let Me Show You How Democracy Works led to none of these things.  What I first noticed when I put on this album was the marked improvement in production over the band's 7" release from last year.  While still maintaining that gritty and rough quality that we've all come to expect from Jeff Beckman-related projects, the solid and full production quality helps enhance rather than hinder all 18 frenzied and furious songs.

While tracks like "Dark Future" and "Meltdown" will leave even the most ardent Haymaker fan satisfied, the metallic elements of songs like "How to Cope" and "Right Turn" help differentiate Pick Your Side from any of the members' previous projects.  The most surprising track of the album is by far "Ham Sandwich".  Not because singer Jeff Beckman calls for the destruction of various religions, but because it is much more of a sludge metal song than anything....and it's a good one!  It is these departures from the awesome, albeit formulaic, hardcore song writing that makes this album so enjoyable.

Final Word: I could go on about all the various nuances of this album, and how no topic is too taboo for Beckman to address and condemn, but this really is an album that has to be heard.  The record is a call back to an earlier and angrier age of hardcore when it needs to be, but it's also a fresh reminder that musical growth and variety is still be possible when your average song length is only about a minute and a half.

Favourite Tracks: Plug-In Generation, How to Cope, This Too Shall Pass.

Buy this album now!  It's better than anything else you were planning on buying.

Review: Pick Your Side - Survival Prayer 7"

Pick Your Side 

Survival Prayer 7”

A389 Recordings 

Rating: 8/10

Track Listing:

1. Controlled by Fear

2. Gnarly Times

3. I’ll be Happy When

4. Mentally Fucked

5. Digital Currency

6. Survival Prayer

7. World Split Open

8. Help Me Forget

9. Webs in the Sky

10. Hinkley Had a Vision (Crucifucks cover)

As the first substantial piece of music that legendary guitarist/frontman Jeff Beckman was put out since the demise of Haymaker, Pick Your Side’s Survival Prayer was inevitably going to be met with countless comparisons to the singer’s back catalog. Fortunately, this 10 song 7” will quickly silence any critics or naysayers who fear that Pick Your Side would end up simply being a poor man’s Haymaker.

Joined by Johnny Ibay from Fuck the Facts, Beckman and Co. have managed to capture much of the pissed-off, thrashy hardcore tone that made bands like Haymaker and Left for Dead so revered.  More importantly, the lyrical fury that Beckman has become widely known for remains intact on this release.   Songs like Controlled by Fear, I’ll be Happy When, and Digital Currency start off this EP with a sense of political ferocity that any Beckman fan will be pleased with, accompanied by buzz-saw guitar tones and a chaotic rhythm section.

Half-way through this flurry of distortion (10 songs in 11 minutes), songs like Survival Prayer and Help Me Forget show that Pick Your Side is able to mix break-neck speed with crushing riffs that further highlight Beckman’s anguished screams.  Finally, the EP ends with an unexpectedly impressive cover of the Crucifuck’s Hinkley Had a Vision, modernizing this atonal Reagan-era classic by adding Beckman’s hate-filled vocals and distortion-laden thrash riffs.

The only possible drawbacks to this 7” are the uniformity in song writing and production value.  While these factors are largely a matter of taste, the break-neck speed and one-dimensional distortion makes each song bleed into the next in an unintended seamlessness that sometimes makes it hard for even the most attentive listener to identify where one song ends and another begins.

Final Word:  Pick Your Side delivers the same furious thrashy hardcore that made Haymaker a hardcore mainstay throughout the early 2000’s.  While dynamics and diversity are lacking, Survival Prayer provides aggressive, distorted, hardcore without ever missing a beat.  As this 7” is a precursor to an LP set to be released in April, it provides a glimpse into future where political, stripped-down and sped-up hardcore is still relevant and appreciated.

Favourite Track: I’ll be Happy When, Hinkley Had a Vision

Review Date: March 21, 2012

Buy it