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| Cover art by Joshua Brettel. |
While everyone (including myself) was talking up the latest Trap Them release, Detroit's Boddicker were being criminally ignored. And it's hard to ignore something as unabashedly violent as Crime Upheaval.
Much of what Boddicker embody is right there in the album title. Crime (lyrically and aesthetically) and upheaval, as in how their HM-2 saturated buzzsaw guitars churn up a filthy and intimidating ooze of hardcore aggression.
With 12 songs in around 21 minutes none of these killing blows stick around too long but all are delivered with menace and remorselessness. The shorter shots are quick and deadly while the longer bleeds ring like a shotgun blast beside the ear.
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| Photos by Carmelo Española. |
Boddicker mix tempos with ease from hit and run blasts through heaving, slow beatdowns. The latter a cruel torture akin to holding your hand on a person's face after a serious slap to really make it sting. But that's what gives the album its dynamicism. It would be easy to just hit the gas and mow down anything in the way. Mixing it up makes Crime Upheaval hang around in the old noggin a little longer.
Down-picked riff magic and chaotic violence come together to adrenalize the listener. Bestial growls rally the hatred while spazzed-out guitar complication is forced into competition with bone-breaking, mosh-ready rhythms and enough swing to send elbows and knees off in pendulous motions.
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| Photos by Carmelo Española. |
Moments in tracks such as “Energy Blackmail”, where a lone guitar waits for the rest of the band to explode back in, like a cocked hammer and pulled trigger, are what lend the album extra gravity amid the breakneck pace that barely touches the ground.
It's no surprise that something as violent as Crime Upheaval is a product of Detroit. It's nasty and charged with a relentless energy for destruction. It came out months ago but it's best not to ignore it any longer. You never know what these guys might do.
[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]