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I
haven’t heard
Pain It Black’s previous Paradise in at least two years.
All I remember is that I wasn’t that enthused about it. I
thought it was quite soft. Not that there is anything wrong with
being soft. But I thought it sounded like they were trying to
move away from the hard hardcore of 2003’s CVA, but came
out with a half-cooked stew of undecisive post-hardcorian
relapse. So I am quite surprised at the initial approach
displayed by the first few seconds of New Lexicon’s “The
Ledge”; which truth be told starts in sheer East Coast old
school hardcore rage. But wait forty-five seconds for a change
of pace, for a short venture of non-chugga guitar dramatics.
Nice touch, but nothing new by now. “Four Deadly Venoms”.
Sonically, it seems to tell us that East Coast hardcore is here
to stay, the spiteful speed is one sided, but like its
predecessor also contains a break of angular mid-paced riffs and
monotone anti-melodic riffs.
New Lexicon
ain’t bad. It ain’t bad at all. But it’s inconsequential because
it lacks power at its core. Because the genre it embraces
(that’s hardcore) it’s treated as a primary source of power, but
not as its end. Hardcore is a conundrum here. I much more
prefer the straight up rage of “Past Tense, Future Perfect”,
where despite the girth-less production job of the band, J.
Robbins (from Clutch to Against Me! to the Hidden Hand) and
Oktopus (Dalek), presents a rather dull sonic edge. Here is a
band that seems to be grabbing at several sources, that by its
choice of production wants to enlarge its audience but that via
its songwriting leaves us wanting for either more hardcore or
whatever the extra edge they are trying to offer is.
Official Site
MySpace
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