Happy Belated Valentines Day, you loveless pecks! Your boy Waldo here, reviewing some upcoming releases.
So, WTP (that’s What The Peck) is this? Hardcore stalwarts Turnstile signed to Roadrunner and are releasing Time & Space. I gotta say, with Code Orange blowing up, seems like the metal labels are snapping up hardcore bands to try to get another huge success. As a child of the 90’s, post-hardcore is something I’m familiar with, but Time & Space isn’t just post-hardcore. I have no pecking idea what this is… this IS post-hardcore to some extent, but there’s not a lot of choruses (or is it chori?) or singalong parts, and while a tiny part of their original sound remains, there is a ton of baffling things here… weird vocal effects, some soloing which just doesn’t seem to fit, and there’s a big nod to noise rock, which makes sense considering the “post-hardcore” tag. All in all, this doesn’t suck outright, but it’s lukewarm at best, maybe it’s because this bird brain expects more out of a hardcore band. This seems like a chance for an underground band to try to go mainstream, and good for them. It’s just not my thing. So, like, 3 Fucking Pecks.
People like “existentialist black metal,” right? Uhhh… you don’t know either? Thy Antichrist, a US black metal outfit, do their best to dress up and pretend to NOT be from the US on Wrath Of The Beast. Where do I start with this? Existentialist black metal? Uhhh, what is that? Also, I’m not a huge fan of black metal, and US black metal is definitely not that great either (in general). So what’s with this? This is by the numbers, trem picking, screeching and corpse paint. There are some death rock riffs in here too. The production is thin (there’s NO low end, nor does it sound like it was recorded in a shoebox), so I’m not really sure WHAT to make of this. This seems to me like a money grab Hot Topic sorta thing… nothing much extreme here. 3 Fucking Pecks.
Wow, Waldo, you hate everything this week. Not so. Relapse is releasing the Iron Reagan/Gatecreeper split and this birdshit is RIPPING. If you don’t know, Richmond’s Iron Reagan are crossover punk and Arizona’s Gatecreeper harken back to old Entombed. This is easily the best work from both bands. On the Iron Reagan side, “Warning” may be the punk anthem for 2018, and on the Gatecreeper side, “Dead Inside” has enough filth to clog a vacuum cleaner. This is awesome. 8 Fucking Pecks.
Peace out…
