Forcefed Trauma
Enslaved in Hatred
5.1
If you have any experience with Gomek Records, you probably have some expectations for this record. This is a label that specializes in churning out chuggy, moshy metal/hardcore conglomerations, and unlike Discreate, Forcefed Trauma aren’t even a slight deviation from Gomek’s usual fare. Enslaved in Hatred is pure chugga core that’s energetic enough to win a few fans but certainly not distinctive in any way.
Citing Slayer, Lamb of God and Hatebreed as their prime influences, Forcefed Trauma go one-for-three in the self analysis department as the only of the above bands who have anything to do with their sound is Hatebreed. By “anything to do with” I actually mean a fuck of a lot; this shit is separated from Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire by about a degree and a half of extra metalness, and that’s being generous. The vast majority of this six-song release is composed of stompy, burly lo-fi hardcore grooves that make nary a single bone about providing a reliable dancefloor soundtrack and ignore pretty much everything else. Vocalist Jacob provides some wildly inventive lyrical derring-do with quatrains like “see you in the pit/your ink don’t mean shit/stay true to yourself/don’t cling to no one else” (“Hit’em Up”) while guitarist James occasionally drops in a speedy lead amongst the sweaty, bouncy grooves. This is quite frankly as about as much description as I can muster, as the majority of these tracks sound like cobbled-together compilations of other bands' breakdowns and two-step parts.
So why should you care about Forcefed Trauma? Beats the hell outta me. With dozens of peers playing on both the more metallic and less metallic sides of the fence and doing it better than Forcefed Trauma can, these dudes just seem like another bunch of fat bald twenty-somethings who want to bring the sick mosh to their local venue. Probably alright live, but Enslaved in Hatred is boring as all get-out on disc.
