The Dream Is Dead
Hail The New Pawn
7.7
Here’s a violently pleasant surprise. The last time I heard this Indiana outfit was on their generically hardcore Taking Friendly Fire EP. Well, in two years this band has apparently become more pissed off, listened to some Swedish “dis”-crust and The Power and the Glory’s Call Me Armageddon, down-tuned their guitars and basically in the word of Russell Crowe, unleashed hell.
Opener “Who Rules Bartertown?” pretty much sets the ball mashing tone of the album; intense, intense hardcore with a crusty punk, semi classic grindcore lean and noisy mid range buzz permeating every note. From there on, All Hail the New Pawn blazes an angry path through atypical hardcore structures (minus the tough guy breakdowns) without being too macho or trendy; it comes across as genuinely pissed off and vitriolic; “Promotional Copy”, "The Puritan”, “The Fury of Crom”, “Nickelodeon Diplomacy”, WILL rip you a new one while a few more restrained yet malevolent tracks like the title track, “Deuce”, “Homage to Ohmage” and “Redefining Progress” are still unsettling, discordant stabs to your cerebral cortex. And when “Redefining Progress” does end this typically short shitstorm, you kind of realize you weren’t breathing the whole time and finally exhale.
My only gripe is the vocals of Clark Giles, though competent, his shout isn’t as eviscerating as the band’s new found sense of violent noise, still keeping the band at least vocally in pure hardcore realm. Still, when backed by the emaciating production and sheer velocity of the music, it’s a small sacrifice.
I’ll throw out the presence of guitarist Jared Southwick from local on again, off again death metal act Harakiri to make this more appealing to you death metal types so you don’t get the cuties from listening to this and keep your image up, but this has as much in common with the likes of Crowpath than typical jock based teen hardcore, so I recommend you drop all genre separating pretenses and check this out.
