TERROR: Keepers of the Faith

Released: 2010

For the best part of the last decade, Terror has been keeping it real and keeping it honest, and on their latest blitzkrieg release they simply refuse to compromise that integrity to any degree whatsoever. Keepers the Faith has 13 tracks in just on 33 minutes, and hearkens back to the metallic hardcore glory days of Shai Hulud, Earth Crisis and Vision of Disorder.

The cover says it all: no frills, no bullshit. This is what the underground is all about. Here there's no melodic choruses or whiny vocals and no melodeath-style twin guitar harmonies. It's just simple, speedy punk beats, hard and fast, catchy riffs and slammin' breakdowns perfect for the pit. That's it. Scott Vogel delivers his lyrics as a spitfire string of unsung hard rhyme with no thought to busting out into choirboy-mode when the chorus rolls around. The guitars roar with a metallic fury with a spastic, rapid fire solo squeezed out here and there for a splash of colour.

If you want to know what metalcore sounded like before Atreyu ruined it, then Terror's your band.

1. Your Enemies Are Mine
2. Stick Tight
3. Return to Strength
4. The Struggle
5. Shattered
6. You're Caught
7. Dead Wrong
8. Keepers of the Faith
9. Stay Free
10. Hell and Back
11. Only Death
12. The New Blood
13. Defiant

Rating: 90%

PARKWAY DRIVE: Deep Blue

Produced by Joe Baressi

There's nothing like playing to your strengths when you're at the height of your popularity. It's OK to take genre-bending wanders through hitherto-unexplored artistic avenues when the fanbase has started to die off (or before it swells), but when you're at the top of your game in the fickle world of rock, stick to what you know best. On Deep Blue, Parkway Drive does exactly that. Nothing less and not much more. It's catchy and it's safe, and goes precisely where it needs to go. But it's also very good. In the almost three full years since Horizons, Parkway hasn't changed that much. They've just gotten better at what they do.

Engaging the more well-rounded Joe Baressi as producer instead of sticking with metalcore specialist Adam Dutkiewicz hasn't done a lot to their overall sound but it does show a willingness to tinker with a formula without breaking it. While maintaining that level of melodramatic anger and angst that's difficult to imagine could still come out of a bunch of surfer punks living a rock n' roll fantasy (two Top 10 albums, endless world tours, mass adulation), Deep Blue harbours a level of maturity and sophistication that some of the bands they've inspired still lack. Among the bursts of furious rage, ridiculously catchy twin-guitar riffs, the insane chugging breakdown in "Deliver Me" and the groove-laden plod in the likes of "Wreckage", Parkway Drive has also sprinkled some refreshing and subtle introspective moments. They don't last long before getting swallowed up by the energetic and furious metallic attack however, an attack given further emphasis and focus due to Baressi allowing the rhythm section to breathe under the guitars.

Winston McCall's lyrics do little to explore much more than the usual PD fare, but they've came a long way since the tryhard posturing of Killing With a Smile. His delivery is typically more aggessive and convincing than many others, and on the occasions that the band veers directly into the serious metal territory of the Dark Tranquillity-style "Alone" he steps up with a frost-bitten shriek. These little diversities and his steadfast refusal to adopt any form of melodic clean vocals help to ensure that while Parkway Drive is yet to fully break out of their generic mould they are at the very least staying well out at the head of the pack.

1. Samsara
2. Unrest
3. Sleepwalker
4. Wreckage
5. Deadweight
6. Alone
7. Pressures
8. Deliver Me
9. Karma
10. Home is for the Heartless
11. Hollow
12. Leviathan I
13. Set to Destroy

Rating: 85%

DREAMKILLERS: Pockets of Water

Produced by Jeff Lovejoy

Released: 7 May

The very first review you find for this CD on the iTunes site is by "helltrip 10" who opines this "don't sound the same" as the old Dreamkillers line-up, and in many ways that's totally fair. Mustachio'd miscreant Les Jobson resurrected this group with completely different people from the 90s version for a one-off bash back in 2006, only to find that the beast wouldn't die and 12 years on from Character Building Hell Trip the 'Killers don't sound quite like they used to. Bassist Antz brings some Post Life Disorder influence into "Doom Trollop" as it opens this EP with a huge sludgey groove. There's no mistaking Jobson's idiosyncratic vocals, however. His strange blend of melodic singing and half-shouted/spoken ranting was the distinguishing feature of this band, and nothing has changed in that regard.

If the first track has a distinctively metallic edge then "Lil' Darcy" swings the balance back the other way, to the fast, intense riffs of prime hardcore territory. "Verbal Violence" and "Bonebag" show that Jobson has lost none of his talent for sharp, satirical social and political comment while the band carries out a scathing sonic attack with regular bursts of surprising melody. It all comes together on "Smoke Over Marysville", a stinging rebuke of the political clusterfuck of Black Saturday that culminates in a chilling sample of a terrified man leaving a farewell message for his family. In a time when punk and hardcore don't seem to mean what they used to, it's clear that Jobson hasn't forgotten. They might sound tidier and tighter thanks to Jeff Lovejoy's production, but the Dreamkillers still pack a whallop.

1. Doom Trollop
2. Li'l Darcy
3. Smoke Over Marysville
4. 70 Percent of Them
5. Verbal Violence
6. Bonebag

Rating: 83%

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN: Option Paralysis

Produced by Steve Evetts

Released: March 22

I have to admit that it took an album or two for The Dillinger Escape Plan to click with me. For an old campaigner like myself, the signal to noise ratio was too lopsided. I couldn't understand it.

Now of course, it all makes sense, and I look forward to how I am going to be amazed by the frenetic five piece each time they do something new. With album number four, they continue to make some of the finest extreme noise there is, conforming only to the rule that there are no rules. While the plethora of copy-cats bands continue to appear and then disappear in slightly more time than it takes to whip a MySpace page together, Dillinger continue to forge so far ahead that it will take something incredible to catch them. So while Option Paralysis doesn't show them taking any enormous stylistic leaps, it underlines their reputation as simply the best band of their kind.

Option Paralysis strips away the electronic incursions of Ire Works whilst retaining some of the melodic aspects as well as the ferocious technical turmoil for which they are renown. "Farewell, Mona Lisa" is the most accessible and hooky track, with Greg Puciato exhibiting the full range of his vocal acrobatics including an impressive melodic croon. But then they step out into completely capricious, avant-garde jazz-metal psychosis where time-signatures and traditional arrangements mean nothing. "Room Full of Eyes" is perhaps the stand-out example on this album of The Dillinger Escape Plan at its chaotic best, making the starkest possible contrast to the brooding piano ballad "Widower" featuring master jazz pianist (and long-time David Bowie colloborator) Mark Garson. But even calling "Widower" a ballad is a stretch when one considers the hardcore mayhem it eventually becomes. "I Wouldn't If You Didn't" is virtually the last word in unpredictibility, slowing down, speeding up, veering off, lurching back, and ending up nowhere near where it began. In a band where keeping time seems almost irrelevant, Billy Rymer's drumming display is simply mind-boggling, somehow keeping Ben Weinman's ever-changing storm of riffs on track in spite of the band's utterly non-linear songwriting style, and Puciato is simply untouchable in his schizophrenic vocal abilities. Only Patton comes close, and even he can't growl with such terrifying import.

Option Paralysis is proof yet again that The Dillinger Escape Plan is one of the best bands in the world. Ignore this at your peril.

1. Farewell, Mona Lisa
2. Good Neighbor
3. Gold Teeth on a Bum
4. Crystal Morning
5. Endless Endings
6. Widower
7. Room Full of Eyes
8. Chinese Whispers
9. I Wouldn't If You Didn't
10. Parasitic Twins

Rating: 98%

MASSAPPEAL: Nobody Likes a Thinker

Released: 1986

The mid-80s was a turbulent time on the Sydney music scene. Thrash metal was just beginning to take a hold on the consciousness of the metalheads and in the chaos of the punk scene things were also changing. American-style hardcore was about to have an impact on how punk looked and sounded, and a bunch of surfers and skaters with blond tips and Metallica t-shirts was bringing it on. Massappeal entered the maelstrom with a sound the punks and skins adored but a look they hated, but, like the Hard Ons they just didn't care. Like them, they were just some dudes who could barely play their instruments, making music they loved. But unlike the Punchbowl trio, Massappeal had no pop sensibilities at all. And while Sydney's metal freaks would come to love Massappeal as much as the punks, there's nothing metal whatsoever about "Nobody Likes a Thinker".

This is furious thrashing punk energy at its most primal, a grinding, noisy swirl of out-of-tune guitars and indecipherable, shouted vocals. "Can't Forget" has a tiny element of groove, but that's about it. The seven tracks represented here are raw, full-blown early hardcore without pretensions, dynamics, melody or production. It's a complete overload of energy and volume that few other bands could match even today. Fans of modern metal with its glossy finish and melody lines won't know what to make of this, but those who want to get their hands dirty in some of the best hardcore punk ever made simply need to find this, a task that was made easier in 2006 when Chatterbox released a 2-CD version that also included the "Bar of Life" double A-side (featuring "Fun Again", one of the most intense pieces of music of all time), demo material and a roughly-recorded live show from the band's Canberra gig with DRI during which Randy Reimann apparently heckled some skinheads until they went crazy and smashed up the place.

If that isn't classic, nothing is.

1. Rat in a Hole
2. Can't Forget
3. I.V. Me
4. Deadheads
5. Forgiving
6. Pissed on Life
7. Beginning of a Hurt

Rating: 95%

2006 version:

CD 1:

1. Rat in a Hole
2. Can't Forget
3. I.V. Me
4. Deadheads
5. Forgiving
6. Pissed on Life
7. Beginning of a Hurt
8. Fun Again
9. Are You Alright?
10. Elitist Shit
11. Rat in a Hole (demo)
12. Fun Again (demo)
13. Can't Forget (demo)
14. Illness (demo)
15. No Seduction (demo)
16. Deadheads (demo)
17. Are You Alright? (demo)
18. I.V. Me (demo)
19. Pissed On Me (demo)

CD 2:

1. What I Want (live)
2. No Seduction (live)
3. Illness (live)
4. If I Don't (live)
5. Scream of Desperation (live)
6. Elitist Shit (live)
7. Balance (live)
8. Damage Zone (live)
9. Rat in a Hole (live)
10. Forgiving (live)
11. New One (live)
12. No Light No Shadow (live)
13. Can't Forget (live)
14. Deadheads (live)
15. Degenerated (live)
16. Mosmanised (live)
17. Time (live)
18. Can't Face Reality (live)
19. I.V. Me (live)
20. Every Time I Open Up (live)

TOE TO TOE: Threats and Facts

Produced by Paul Tag and Toe to Toe

Released: 1995

Like Mindsnare, Toe to Toe are true legends of Australian hardcore, a strangely ironic tag for a genre that often boasts about a lack of idols. Nonetheless, these guys were (or are, one can never be sure we've heard the last of them yet) one of the staunchest pillars of the local HC scene for the best part of a decade, and unlike their aforementioned Melbourne counterparts who come across like a punked-out version of Slayer, Toe to Toe had no metal in their sound whatsoever.

Threats and Facts was the first full length album for the band, released at a time when the Sydney punk scene was at its pinnacle and Toe to Toe seemed to play a dozen gigs a week. Sharp, aggressive and uncompromising, this is nothing more than furious, bare-knuckle punk rock driven by the razorwire guitars of Pete Davies and Justin Owen and fuelled by the raging, unsung snarling from the formidable Scottie Mac. With no pretensions of being anything other than street-level HC that stands for no shit and takes no prisoners, Threats and Facts is more intimidating and fearsome than almost any metal you could name.

I watched Scottie Mac and some of his mates punching on with a bunch of other dudes in the middle of Newtown one night, and that's pretty much what this album's like. Relentless, violent and punishing, all over and done with in the same time it takes to listen to three Opeth songs. Threats and Facts is a classic slice of hardcore no purist should be without.

1. Season of Attrition
2. No Allegiance
3. Crutch
4. Unguided Missile
5. The Edge
6. Goals
7. Justice
8. Chokehold
9. Watch it Die
10. Depend
11. Something to Believe
12. Think

Rating: 98%

THE DAYLIGHT CURSE: Black and White Memories

Released: 2005

These days, there's so much metalcore coming out with so little to distinguish one band from the next that it's hard to be objective about the genre anymore. What was once a fresh new direction has simply turned into a great big cookie-cutter of short dyed hair, long shorts, brand new black t-shirts, At the Gates riffs and screaming. Not since everyone wanted to be Kurt Cobain has there been bandwagon-jumping on this sort of scale.

What does all this have to do with The Daylight Curse? Pretty much everything, really, but as this Sunshine Coast band's CD churned through the stereo I found myself getting into it much more than I thought I would, and that's a good sign.

Black and White Memories is unarguably metalcore, but The Daylight Curse brings to it a couple of things that many within the genre have forgotten: metal and diversity. For those two reasons alone, this band scores highly in my books. The Daylight Curse falls far more squarely on the metal side of things than other bands of their ilk. There's a technical aspect to their songwriting that really stands out and James Roberts shows himself to be quite a versatile vocalist. Morgan O'Rourke is also very much a metal-influenced guitarist, contributing some tidy and effective lead work. In the space of the first three songs, Black and White Memories displays more variety than a dozen other metalcore releases. "Till Death do Us Part" has an almost death metal vibe to it, right down to Roberts' vocals and the Arch Enemy-like technicality. In "The Show Must Go On...", a very distinctive Iron Maiden influence surfaces, something that appears here and there throughout the album. "Prepare to Burn" is where the first real metalcore idiosyncrasies arise with clean vocal melodies alternating with harsher sounds and a clearly commercial edge. The whole album could have gone to pot then, but it doesn't. The Daylight Curse maintains an individual approach to its chosen form for the length of the album, and at just eight songs, Black and White Memories doesn't wear out its welcome with generic filler and throwaway tracks.

Metalcore may have become a worn-out form as quickly as it appeared, but this shows there are a few bands playing it that still have something a bit unique to offer.

1. Till Death do Us Part
2. The Show Must Go On...
3. Prepare to Burn
4. Everyday is Dead Without You
5. Long Song Pt. 1
6. A Rat's Coffin
7. Love Song Pt 2
8. The Weight of the World

Rating: 84%

VARIOUS ARTISTS: A Pirate's Life - Skull and Bones Records Sampler Vol. 1

Released: 2008

Skull and Bones is a label from Brisbane that has been extending its feelers into the burgeoning hardcore and related fields over the past few years, gathering up bands from around Australia and a couple from Britain and Japan. A lot of this music is outside my usual listening preference and some of it is beyond my tastes. Such as it is, I can't really give an objective opinion about some of the bands, particularly the more screamo-based acts like England's Johnny Truant who seem to exist just to make as harsh a noise as possible, but A Pirate's Life certainly gives a good overview of the label's aims and would surely be a good starting point for those who are looking for more underground and local alternatives to the foreign deluge.

First cab off the rank is Maroochydore's The Daylight Curse, one of those bands that blurs the definition between hardcore and metal to the degree where they are almost indiscernable from one another. Take away the breakdowns and core-ish gang vocals and "Stick to the Code" is a catchy melodic death metal song. There's no doubting which side of the fence an act like screamo outfit The Rivalry sit however with their very noisy and audaciously long "No Face for the Mentor", nor could fellow Adelaide lads Bloodsport be called anything but hardcore. Tokyo's Loyal to the Grave play a brutal mosh-heavy style of old-school metalcore that would please fans of bands like Vision of Disorder, and elsewhere The Amity Affliction come closest to any band here to a commercial prospect with the emo-leaning "I ♥ Throbsy". Art Vandelay and A Secret Death take a few leaves out of the early Neurosis copybook with their noisecore soundscapes. On the more metal side of things is Western Decay from Brisbane who tear out some speedy death metal and the time-signature defying The Abandonment. Other bands like Cross the Lips of Grace and Coma Lies create devastatingly brain-numbing attacks of dissonance that can't adequately be described but are fearsome in their pursuit of extremity.

Some of these bands would quite frankly drive me to ram a spike into my ears after more than a few minutes and terrify a casual audience, but those more attuned to it would probably find A Pirate's Life to be laden with some buried treasures.

1. The Daylight Curse - Stick to the Code
2. Anime Fire - Venom
3. The Abandonment - Digging Up the Dead
4. The Amity Affliction - I ♥ Throbsy
5. A Secret Death - idkfa
6. The Rivalry - No Face for the Mentor
7. Benneson Theory - I Trust Me
8. Johnny Truant - The Bloodening
9. Cross the Lips of Grace - Through Your Windows of Pain
10. Coma Lies - Paris, Wide On
11. Loyal to the Grave - Stagnation
12. Western Decay - Bloodclots and Clay
13. Art Vandelay - Donec Floruit
14. Bloodsport - Devoted to This
15. A Secret Death - Line of Progression
16. Infinite Thought Process - Moth Powder
17. Cross the Lips of Grace - Take Me to the Promised Land
18. Johnny Truant - I am the Primitologist, Mr Robrt Saposky
19. Naked Burn - Empty Hands
20. Loyal to the Grave - Endless Maze
21. Coma Lies - Take Me to the Stars... I Want to Go Home

Rating: 78%

VENOMOUS CONCEPT: Poisoned Apple

Released: 2008

"Hardcore" is a word that gets bandied about with furious abandon in music circles these days, but the guys who bring you Poisoned Apple know precisely where it belongs and after one listen, you'll understand too. With two members from Napalm Death and two from Brutal Truth, Venomous Concept adopted their name as a play on that of Poison Idea and the music is almost identical.

The first inklings of this appeared late last year as three tracks on a vinyl split with Blood Duster, so anyone who has that will know what to they're getting into. Otherwise, those familiar with Napalm Death and Brutal Truth who may be expecting something similar may well be in for a surprise. This is neither metal nor grind. It's pure hardcore punk that could have come straight out of early 80s America. It's stripped back and angry, with Shane Embury (in the unfamiliar role of guitarist here) churning out simple, catchy and speedy riffs for Kevin Sharp to vomit his caustic invective upon. It's violent and unrelenting, only slowing down enough here and there to give false respite before hammering down again like a blunt object delivering blow upon blow of fury, leaving novice listeners feeling not unlike the mutilated pink bunnies on the album cover.

Like most hardcore played at such crazy speed, Poisoned Apple's songs start to blend together after a while, but most of them don't last long enough to be deeply analysed as single entities, more as separate parts of one continuous barrage and the whole thing's over in just on half an hour anyway.

Real 80s hardcore is almost impossible to get these days so it's awesome there's a band bringing it back. Whether you're already a fan or you want to get into raucous crustiness, Poisoned Apple is where it's at.

1. Drop Dead
2. Stupid
3. Life
4. Water Cooler
5. Punk Rock Idol
6. Artist Friendly
7. A Case of the Mondays
8. Every Mother's Son
9. Workers of the World
10. Half Full
11. Check Out
12. White Devil
13. Hero
14. Three
15. Screwball
16. Chaos
17. Think

Rating: 86%