Eyes : "Underperformer"

Hard core cna be a tricky beast to capture just right. If you lean too far into the punk side it becomes boring, if you focus more on the power then it becomes metal. The tough guys thing from the 90s is done. Most of the good hard core these days comes from Northern Europe. Since the Refused exploded out of Sweden this should not come as a great surpise. Denmark seems another fertile ground for this sort of thing. They kick yup a great deal of chaos , while often leaning more toward the metallic side of the equation they are doing more than just making noise. Tormented but with a clear vision of how they want to tell that tale.

It is not until the groove of the title trakc that they earn mu undivided attention. They do commit to a blasting rage, but keep the bounce in their step. The vocal go into a higher scream. With some mathy dazzle to the riffs they are not just one two three go hardcore. They make some interesting production choices , there is hint of things like industrial touching the songs. Some of the punchier moments have to grow on me. The vocals are often the most abrasive thing that is happening, though they are not letting up much on their attack. "Surf" is more straight forward punk with a rowdy rock touch to it and some hints of melody underlying the nastiness/. "Off" is almost too straight forward for mytastes.

There is a little more room to breath with the expanding contracting dynamics of "Voiceswhispersecrets" . This is really all I ask for from hard core , a little darkness, some depth of emotion and at least minimal dynamics. There is more of a feral lashing out with "Swim" . The more spoken sing song vocals are more interesting than the snarling as the lyrics stand out more. "Victims" is another unrestrained attack upon your ear drums. There is almost more of a Slayer feel to the trhashing tension of the riff that opens the last song. These guiys have plenty of vigor and some sembelence of how to properly channel that into song writing. I want to hear where these guys go from here, as this is a great strating point. So Great I will give it an 8.5.If you are looking for angry new hardcore big on the sonics, this is worth your time.