Terror Firma
Throwing You Down The Stairs
8.3
Bleeding heart hardcore, dealt out with obvious passion and conviction courtesy of Australia’s own Terror Firma, can be found within the first few seconds of Throwing You Down the Stairs. This is skillfully arranged and assembled vitriol, and its immediacy slapped me in the face and honestly surprised the hell out of me.
Lyrics spew forth from the frothing mouth of..a woman? No fucking way, dude! The first time I listened to the album I listened to it all the way through and not once did I think for a moment that the vocalist was female, but after careful research I was left floored. Normally I am not a big fan of hardcore vocalists, but Jacquie demands attention with mostly shouted and more infrequently used clean vocals, and even successfully incorporates spoken-word passages into the mix, the latter being a particularly difficult feat to accomplish.
Like any great hardcore group that flirts with punk, metal, and crust, Terror Firma keeps things remarkably short on Throwing You Down the Stairs. To be exact, it’s 18 minutes long. This approach keeps songs distinguishable from one another and will please listeners looking for a quick, no bullshit release. Songs like “ Here’s to You and the Human Race” convey this loyalty to immediacy most clearly. Within a 1:48 time frame, it switches from hyper-speed melody to catchy breakdown with the smoothness of a fine vodka and even allows for a few seconds of cleverly incorporated clean vocals. There is an amazing sense of balance between the rougher element inherent in hardcore and a previously unheard and, to my ears, nearly revolutionary melody. The guitar tone can sound so raw and yet switch so seamlessly into this highly melodic pitch. It all makes this affair quite impressive.
Usually something as seemingly schizophrenic as Throwing You Down the Stairs would find its way in the trash as a product of too many uncontrolled ideas becoming one big pile of diarrhea, but Terror Firma arranges its different sonic textures in a way that is palpable to listeners while challenging their notions of the limitations of hardcore. Color me converted.
