Nowhere does hardcore like New York. MADBALL, BIOHAZARD, CRO-MAGS, KILLING TIME… between them these bands and many others have made the Big Apple’s take on the genre synonymous with groove, bounce, swagger, riffs and – often as a result of all this – a catchiness that is impossible to deny. That’s exactly what you’ll find on Belly Of The Beast, the sophomore full-length from the unmistakably and unapologetically New York hardcore outfit COMBUST.
That and a butt-load of guest features. If the band’s excellent debut LP Another Life (2022) hadn’t already piqued your interest in this record, then perhaps the fact that they have attracted the patronage of members of CROWN OF THORNZ, MINDFORCE and TERROR – to name just half – will do the trick. Jay Peta and Scott Vogel of the latter two of those bands both make inevitable marks on Swallowing Swords and Paid With Pain respectively – such is their style and charisma – but all the guests add their own flavours really; whether it’s Rory O’Neill of IMPOSTER bellowing away on lead single Our Own Breed, rapper Rome Streetz providing a skit-like intro to Tiger Style II, or Danny Diablo of CROWN OF THORNZ and Chiqui Rodriguez of DMIZE representing some of New York’s supremely influential class of the 90s on N.Y.H.C. and Crossed Off respectively.
To be clear though, COMBUST are a great band in their own right, and unlike, say, pretty much all the post-2019 output of a certain cinematic universe, Belly Of The Beast is far from reliant on cool cameos and fan service. It kicks off with the incendiary and infectious title track, vocalist Andrew Vacante displaying more than enough style and charisma of his own as he presides over an impeccably produced onslaught of thrashy riffs and swagged-out grooves. Second single Everyone’s Enemy follows, its simple chorus of “I don’t need the validation that you seek / I wanna be everybody’s enemy” clearly standoffish but also just demanding to be bellowed along to by an irresponsibly stacked pile of bodies in a live setting.
And that is essentially Belly Of The Beast in a microcosm. Aside from Streetz’s appearance on the aforementioned Tiger Style II – and perhaps the more melodic intro to sixth track Fear In The Streets in a distant second place – the album doesn’t really deviate from there. But it doesn’t really need to. This is the kind of hardcore that just feels good, with lyrics about all the usual business of turning your back on fakes and overcoming obstacles and doing things your own way delivered across a set of 12 songs that are riotous, catchy and motivational without exception. With the runtime landing pretty much bang on half an hour it’s exactly the length a record like this needs to be, and as mentioned the production courtesy of Zach Miller is just fantastic – crisp and clear, but still a safe distance from overproduced and lifeless.
Ultimately there may be little mistaking COMBUST’s influences – to be fair, they’ll probably just tell you themselves, or invite them to guest on the record even – but that doesn’t mean Belly Of The Beast should be written off as pure pastiche. Like a lot of the current crop of truly great hardcore bands – your SPEEDs, DRAINs and MINDFORCEs etc. – COMBUST are compelling not just because they are brilliant at what they do, but perhaps even more so because of the unmistakable heart and soul and conviction they do it with, which, after all, is what this stuff is all about.
Rating: 8/10
Belly Of The Beast is set for release on March 7th via Triple B Records.
Like COMBUST on Facebook.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário