The extra angered pummeling of the Tampa band's dense sound packs a punch. Horsewhip leans the most in a hardcore direction while integrating dark metallic moods into its attack. It is so intense and explosive, that you are left reeling after the first song to wonder if they can in fact write a song. While the vocals are screamed with the same monochrome aggression on the second song, you can hear the journey they are taking you on letting me know they care about songwriting. "Buried " has dark echoes but is primarily concerned about being a vehicle to document this expression of rage.
"Dark Matter ' is an interlude whose melodic colors might have been better severed worked into an actual song. The songs are very compact staying in the three-minute range. The only drawback is that once we get to "Pain" things begin to take on a more uniform feel. They throw themselves into a thrashing style of hard-core that is suitably in your face, but so much so it begins to leave not as much room for melodic and charges at in a head-on attack. "Pain" does find a little more atmosphere in the last minute , but the same can not really be said for the songs that follow it.
"Plague Machine " carries a more punk energy to it's angry burst of compressed chaos. The drummer is good, but all over the place. They do find a commanding chug or three, but the rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make. They also follow a formula similar to the previous song where the atmosphere is only used in the last minute of the song. "Full of Fury" is marginally darker. It feels more like a sped-up Neurosis. The last song shows improvement in terms of a greater range of sonic shades they attack you with, but you are still being attacked. I will give this album an 8, if you like metallic hard core then these guys lean in the more metal direction with tasty dissonance.
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