Trash Talk
Self Titled
6.8
And here I was thinking Reign In Blood was short. This self-titled effort from Sacramento HC crew Trash Talk rips through twelve songs in fourteen spiteful minutes. Yep, this certainly is a short release but it’s also pretty sweet. Well, if you can call nasty, raging punk/metal ‘sweet’, but you know what I mean. While there’s no new ground being broken here, it’s fair to say most bands claiming to combine metal and hardcore don’t sound nearly as vicious as this. Not only that, but Trash Talk have also managed to convince none other than Steve Albini to sit in the producer’s chair, and his trademark rawness lends the band further distinction and character.
Around half the songs on this album effectively combine fast and heavy hardcore with brutal slower passages and an uncompromising duel-vocal attack. Trash Talk show a lot of promise on these tracks, particularly “The Hand That Feeds”, “Birth Plague Die” and the vocal-less “Onward and Upward”. These are sandwiched between blastbeat-ridden, thirty-second grindcore tantrums like “Well of Souls” and “Incarnate” which are jarring due to their brevity but still effective. Also worth mentioning is the slowly-distorting whiteout of closing track “Revelation” as it recalls how Albini ended Zao’s equally intense The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here. The incredibly short duration of Trash Talk makes it difficult to fully assess the band’s songwriting ability at this stage, but I think a little fleshing out of ideas here and there could really see these guys deliver the full-length goods next time around.
Overall, an impressive little effort from Trash Talk which should appeal to fans of genuine punk/metal crossover. As fun as this release is, it’s not for the faint of heart. This is brutal, noisy and intense hardcore metal that never lets up for a moment. There’s also enough vitriol and spitefulness here to make you want to take a shower afterwards. Metalcore fans need not bother with this one, which is ironic given that Trash Talk is one of those rare bands that actually live up to what a metal/hardcore fusion should sound like. Take this on if you dare.
