Hardcore punk isn't my thing. Let's get that out of the way first. All that grunting, unintelligible shouting and the macho posturing in white wife beater vests is a bit of a turn off.
It normally sounds like two gay Hells Angels having a domestic in the flat next door, and I'm never sure what's worse. The arguments or the making up.
So when the début from “Flowers of Flesh and Blood” arrived for review I inwardly cringed while thinking here we go again, more aural rape for my ears. I seem to be a magnet for that sort of shit.
However there are always exceptions and FoFaB are definitely one of them.
It's probably down to them taking nearly a decade to settle into a line up.
While honing themselves on the live circuit supporting everyone from Asian Dub Foundation to Fun Loving Criminals wont have hurt either.
Whatever it is it must be said that they have done themselves proud as “War Poetry” is a brutally majestic release.
A genuine quantum leap ahead of what their peers are churning out, and far more imaginative than expected. The use of spoken word samples added as intros to the tracks, while nothing new, works very well in the context of the songs, and the vocal range casually disregards the genres template of death grunts and little more.
If anyone was to entice me into dipping my toe into the hardcore scene then it would be these guys.
While this is a DIY release on their own “Tuneless Records” I hope that they manage to get enough copies out there to make enough of an impact to allow them to swiftly follow it with the already written difficult second album.
If, like me, you consider that the hardcore scene is littered with worthless and unimaginative soundalikes and have maybe even considered it to be a spent force then think again.
Contact them at www.myspace.com/flowersoffleshandblood for a copy.
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