Rage of Discipline is a tricky little fucker to look at. On the one hand you have the fantastic straight edged hardcore which pounds and thumps and is a joy to behold from start to finish, but on the other hand you have the meagre running time of under fifteen minutes for ten tracks, while being charged the price of a normal full length. It isn’t the greatest of value, but that is just about the only fault to be found as the actual album is hardcore fried gold.
Maybe it is the thick meaty bass lines, the ever crunching guitars or the throaty vocals of frontman Joey C, but the ten tracks are always cutting and always delivered with a true fuck you attitude. Everything here is just about spot on from the production to the lyrics which always display a calm air of arrogance in delivering whichever message they are trying to communicate. Take the self appreciative final track ‘Righteous Jams’. It is awesomely arrogant and thumping, yet the confident swagger never crawls under the skin or riles, it simply reaffirms what the listener knows, that they are good at what they do.
From the moment opener ‘Rage of Discipline‘ kicks in to the brooding and angry ‘Where Its Due’ many subtle hardcore delights are to be found. Although it is rare to hear the band break off the tangent which they closely follow, this can’t be deemed as a negative as the constant and consistent drumming and song arrangement testify. ‘Bust It’ is the first track to completely open the album up though as the melody and pace move onto another level while more subtle yet alluring charms can be found on ‘Invasion’, a superb example of how to conduct light/heavy sections while managing not to make the track sound disjointed.
As hardcore albums go, this is so damn refreshing. There isn’t a cheap metal chord in sight, and if you’re looking for the fashionable mop top or flannel shirt, look elsewhere. This is how hardcore used to be made and isn’t all about how fast you can play or how loud you can shout. And because of this, they make some of the loudest noises heard this year.
Jay
www.righteousjams.com
Kung Fu/Broken Sounds