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I
sincerely urge whoever handles the A&R duties at Deathwish
to contact this hyper lethal kiwi quartet. In the hardcore
realm (a realm that to my ears is for the most part filled with
too much machismo for anyone with taste to care), Strangers is
as good as it gets and more. And I feel guilty for letting
Weight sit on my trunk for weeks before giving it a chance.
I had savored their power through their Holding EP, but
where that showed gusto and power Weight displays a more
distinctive personality. Long gone are the clear nods to
Converge. In their place there is now a more robust, personal
and confident take on hardcore, an angle that is never shy to
rock out. And then there are these passages where Strangers’
sound just bloom in such glorious fashion you’d think you are
listening to the best fucking band ever. One minute and a half
into the opener “Expositions” the song gets into this addictive
groove that is just inspiring. It is stuff like that that
denotes quality. There was nothing even close to that in
Holding.
It helps
that Weight has been mastered by no other than James
Plotkin, whose work includes massive sounds form the likes of
Isis and Khanate. These two obviously melt their experimental
cheese and lace it with metal. In parts Strangers, though not
as boldly, falls into certain pretenses that show their
willingness to dip their tows in non hardcorian waters. Much
like the latter part of “Extensions”, “You Crawl” for instance,
has a second half that is almost soul shredding, with a riff
that is as emotional as it is ass ripping.
But
Strangers isn’t donning anyone else’s clothes here. Weight
is filled with furious hardcore; speedy and hyper violent these
ten songs are made to damage, a purpose that seems so easy upon
spins of “Teenagers” (‘we’d carve our names into a tree but
young love is not romantic’) and the animal wailing of “With
Faces Like the Backs of Thumb Tacks” where you’d think the
modern hardcore of Converge is bumping heads against the jumpy
crossover of Ratos de Porao.
Official Site
Read our review of
Holding
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