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I should have know better than to approach a Fucked Up release with expectations. Unless we're talking about expecting the unexpected. I don't know the band well but I saw them play a couple years ago and it was nothing like Year of the Snake. It was a hardcore show. This is neither hard nor core. The title track is almost 24 minutes of groovy psych pulling on an Asian hookah, astral planing through time, spiraling skyward, bathed in a meditative aura. The ambient sections and blissful sojourns to realms beyond the earthly call forth peace. The gravelly vocals (and clean female) do little to harsh the mellow even when the track is at its most muscular. The climax will transport you and the varied instrumentation (synths, bells, panpipes) are trippy as fuck!
The only other track they have time for is “Passacaglia”, six minutes of Monster Magnet meets Brant Bjork with an almost classic rock tilt. It hits on a riff and rides it across the galaxy. It's instrumental, with endless groove and it's a bloody shame it's not 10 times longer.
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Lemme dumb this down for you. FYPM's Dumbed Down is crass, abrasive and as nasty as the floor after a Piss Into A Cup Contest for blind alcoholics. It's about as subtle as trying to cure syphilis with hydrochloric acid. It's superb hardcore. They get in, fuck you up, and get out. It makes you feel like you took a shitkicker to the temple just listening to it. It's the auditory equivalent of getting curb stomped but with all the feral energy you just get back up and eat some deserving douchebag's face with busted chicklets. Crazed Cleveland hardcore, crossover sensibility, street punk swagger and song titles like “Dark Side of the Spoon”, “Douche Chills” and “You Hate Me and I Hate You” kick as much ass as the bruising tunes they represent.
Perhaps the best part is that they are very self-aware (“50 White Dudes with Machetes/Crisis Actors”), socially conscious (“Steubenville City Limits”) and not afraid of calling anyone out. Dumbed Down will seriously beat you silly.
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Two years after dealing out some Stoner Justice, Connoisseur are back with Over the Edge. Smokeland's finest weed enthusiasts fall somewhere between Fucked Up and Fuck You Pay Me in a way. Like FYPM they're as nasty and infectious as hepatitis, brutalizing the listener with gnarly tone and unrefined vocals. While there are no real sonic similarities to Year of the Snake, Connoisseur's drug of choice pairs perfectly with Fucked Up's psychedelic and mind expanding offering.
As you'd expect, Connoisseur bathe the listener in as much pot smoke as you can handle. If I had a nickel for every time they mention smoking weed I'd have enough money to buy some weed. If you can drag yourself off the couch Connoisseur's sludgecore makes for some pretty violent moshing. Whether fast or slow Over the Edge gets its sense of heavy from the state of the band's eyelids. Take the red eye Over the Edge and death to false stoners!
That's Tankcrimes output for 2017 so far! FUCKING KILLER. The first track off Necrot's June release (Blood Offerings) sounds pretty good too!
