I had the pleasure of reviewing the first Selfless studio full length ‘The Price Of Progression’ back in 2011, so I was pretty prepared for a noisy old time from this ‘stop gap’ item which is part live album recorded at Brum’s Scruffy Murphy’s venue and tracks from the split the band did with Suicide Watch. We are talking the kind of hardcore/crust punk/grind that you’d hope for from a band sharing members with Fukpig and I Am Colossus amongst others (it is odd and true the close connection between the opposite ends of the speed spectrum). The kind of band who can flit between playing with Conan and Discharge and find fans at both.
Despite a rough and ready mix that kind of swallows the first couple of songs, and does its best to hide the driving punk heart, the band slowly assert their hard as nails musical personality and tracks like Screaming At A Wall really punch hard and right on the chin. It is frantic, grinding, bruising stuff; hi energy, getting right up close from the start and stretching every blood vessel to get their point across. Listen to something like ‘No More Lies’ and you realise how quickly the band can drop into a great grinding riff that powers the song right up to the pounding breakdown. It really is rather fine and a very honest sound here. Every clatter, grunt and chord as it bounces off the walls.
The four studio tracks have a (slightly!) cleaner sound and pick out the songs in higher definition but with no less passion. They don’t quite hit the same levels of aural violence as the live tracks but they’ll still happily knock your teeth out.
Currently recording their second studio album, this reminds me both to look out for it and was frankly the perfect soundtrack to the current party political liecasts being ground out on my TV. So job done then. Short, sharp bookmark to the main event but, as you’d expect, well worth the money.
(7/10 Gizmo)
Leave a Reply