Well this won’t do at all. Holy Roar Records, whose name has become synomynous with the cream of exciting and innovative British hardcore, have dipped their finger into the murky world of straight-edge hardcore and pulled out London-based Abolition. After vaguely promising showings on splits with peers such as Hang The Bastard, the album fails to excel, and puts the groundbreaking nature of the label back two steps (no pun intended) rather than propelling it forward.
The record begins well enough with “Our Rage”, the excellent guitar work of Sam Knight shining through to give this record legs to stand on. There are brief glimpses of excellent songcraft, especially the intro to Ruin, and the thrashy Disposable Culture. However, the structure to each song is utterly identical (verse bit-fast bit-mosh bit), and the latter-day Roger Miret-esque, “mouth full of smashed gnashers” coarse approach to vocals grate extremely quickly. This style of metal-tinged hardcore is touted by many and mastered by few, and Abolition just don’t seem to have that spark.
Poor production values, although “the point”, make listening very hard going at points. This will do well amongst existing fans of this particular brand of UKHC, for its steadfast adherence to the formula laid down by luminaries such as Unbroken and Pulling Teeth, but for outsiders, this is a muddy, repetitive mess of a record.
OLLIE CONNORS