Kause 4 Konflikt: No Better Friend – No Worse Enemy
This one looks just plain awful on the surface. It reads like the worst of hardcore with Kottonmouth Kings and Slipknot bringing up the fore to end your life brah, and the band members even have themselves dressed like Mushroomhead or something unspeakable, as a quick internet search reveals. Suffice to say it looked like something we’d avoid even if we were paid to listen to it, or even if our life depended on it. It’s also covered in ‘K’s’ to the point that you forbid yourself or your children or your children’s children to ever use the letter again. Further, when a band defines their own music, it’s usually a bad sign. What in the hell is ‘offensive warcore’ anyway? Shouldn’t that be ‘warkore’? Well, whatever it is, it’s actually much better than this intro makes it sound. Kause 4 Konflikt aren’t the nu-metal pansy mask-wearing band you think they are, thankfully. What you have here is closer to older Slayer, and hardcore with some thrash elements. Warcore, whatever, they can make up whatever they want, but luckily for the listener the majority of it is hard enough to not feel so pathetic for having it sitting in your collection for a day. “CORRECT LISTENING IS AT MAXIMUM VOLUME!” they say on the back. Well, maybe, for a listen at least.
No Better Friend – No Worse Enemy is pretty self-evident from the intro. Heavy guitars, pounding drums, deep screams, gang chants, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. And then repeat some more. Kause 4 Konflikt seem pretty privy to this way of life. It’s not necessarily a life to not be privy too, either, just nothing to actually get involved with war about. The chord work on this one is very easy for any metal fan to assimilate, from practically any genre background. Thrash, death metal, gore metal, hardcore, maybe even deathcore, like it or not, basically anyone from any type of metal-listening background could pick this up and find something fairly enjoyable about it for a short amount of time. Coming from France it’s a little surprising, because currently that country is rife with awesome developments in post-hardcore, so guys who take a more straightforward approach are a bit unusual. The music should be enough to last for most listeners for a quick “let’s say I listened to it and be done with it” moment, but beyond that, not really.
No Better Friend – No Worse Enemy has one enemy, itself. The real problem with this release is the amount of similarity between one track to the next. It’s an argument we get tired of making around here sometimes, but sometimes it’s all there is to say, and since we don’t get paid why not say it again? After Kause 4 Konflikt has gotten past their questionable usage of the letter ‘K’, and after you get back the sense of regurgitation tickling your throat as you realize their style is pretty hard, there isn’t much to add. One song is enough to debunk myths about what they’ll sound like but at the same time it’s also enough to pretty much write off the rest of the album. There’s little different from one song to the next, and by the end you’re not even sure if you forgot to take it off ‘repeat track’ or not. The chords could have been moved around, and it would have made little difference. Actually, it would have made no difference, let’s be honest here. For what it is, you probably won’t mind listening to it if you need some background fodder for pounding some iron, but if you actually listened to it for substance you’d be worse off.
Kause 4 Konflikt Official Facebook
Written by Stanley Stepanic
Kause 4 Konflikt: No Better Friend – No Worse Enemy
Built to Rock
3 / 5
