Over the past 13 years Terror have carved themselves a place as hardcore heavyweights. The two original members; vocalist Scott Vogel and drummer Nick Jett, have persevered through multiple line-ups, labels, six albums, four EP’s and an almost constant touring schedule to continue making the music they love. Enjoying a return to form brought about by their 2013 album ‘Live By The Code’; new effort ‘The 25th Hour’ sees Terror back to their best.
This is typical Terror in every way; a constant interchange of off-beats, mid pace hardcore, 2-steps and breakdowns. There aren’t any surprises, they aren’t breaking any new ground, but who wants a surprising Terror album? This is what we expect, this is straight up hardcore and anything else just wouldn’t be the Terror we know and love. That’s not to say it’s entirely predictable either, showing their early influences in songs like ‘Mind At War’, which features a classic call and response gang vocal and menacing Death Threat inspired breakdown, and ‘Set The Trap’ with a smooth groove reminiscent of early 90’s era Sick Of It All.
Terror have never felt the need to drag out a song, often opting to just stop rather than risk the song getting boring. ‘Bad Signs’ is a perfect example of this; a cool 2-step riff into an off-beat/pick slide combo, repeat, and it’s classic, fast, to the point hardcore. Terror don’t write filler, every riff counts and every riff is cool, but lets be totally honest here; the music is just a vehicle for Scott Vogel’s rage, his voice angry and totally commanding as always. Lyrically it’s much the same as their previous albums, content ranging from hardcore life and scene ‘fakes’ to self-empowerment and plain violence, like in stand out track ‘The Solution’ where Vogel emphatically reminds us of cyclical “Violence Solving Everything”.
There are few bands around today that can boast stature within (and to some extent ownership of) their scene without facing ridicule, but Terror have legitimacy you feel is earned. Terror convince you they literally live by the words they preach, and I’ve got no reason to question that assertion. I’ve been listening to Scott Vogel yell about never giving up, about how you won’t break him, and about how hardcore is all he’s got, for about 13 years now and the evidence is in the fact that he is still around, still touring, still releasing good records and still being one angry mother fucker.
The only exceptions of an otherwise solid album is ‘Both Of You’ which feels a bit piecemeal and disjointed, leaving what sound like sincere lyrics lacking cohesion and failing to convey the intention. I’m also not usually a fan of spoken quotes between songs, but in this case I can almost forgive them for re-enforcing sentiment, even if their use is a little tired.
Overall I would say ‘The 25th Hour’ is better than their last two efforts, if not quite reaching the heights of ‘One With The Underdogs’. Concise and to the point, ‘The 25th Hour’ ends with little fanfare; no extended breakdowns, feedback fades or secret hip-hop tracks. It just stops.
(7.5/10 Kane Power)
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