New record reviews from Suspect Device

david1170
2 hours ago
7 min read

The guys at Suspect Device fanzine have been busy moving around their stereo systems and catching up on some listening.

They’ve added a bunch of new record and CD reviews to their website. The latest ones are below…

BORN INFECTED - Year Of The Rat CD - Engineer

Dutch band Born Infected play heavy, chugging, metallic hardcore which is a bit too heavy and metal for my liking. However, when they hit the accelerator, they sound pretty good, ‘Sick Society’ for instance, blazes through in just 40 seconds of straight ahead, fast hardcore and is great. Also, they have a strong animal rights, veganism, and eco-movement ethos which I wholeheartedly support. So, while for the most part their music is not really to my liking, if they are bringing important messages to those who favour that sound, then I’m all for that. So, if you like your hardcore on the very heavy side but to still have a good message, then you need to check this band out.

Engineer (Tony)

HAUNTU – The Unknown Reigns – Engineer LP & CD

A new band for me and while the mention on their bandcamp page of "ghost punk" confused me, I put that to the back of my mind and was very pleasantly surprised. This is more indie than punk, and it put me in mind of Florence & The Machine a little, but only in as much as the vocals are strong and distinctive, for the most part it has me thinking of Sleater Kinney, which is what I really liked about it. The lyrics are good, reflecting the total mess we've made for ourselves currently in this capitalist nightmare, especially for the band hailing from San Diego as the US slides towards totalitarianism. The songs have a real dynamism to them, as well as being super melodic. It’s not the sort of thing I usually choose to listen to, but I have been playing it quite a bit today, and I think it will be one of those albums I find myself going back to on a regular basis.

Engineer (Tony)

NOPE - Done Grieving CD - Engineer

I have to admit that when I saw the cover of this I wasn’t expecting too much, but very quickly I was reprimanding myself for judging an album by its cover. Straight away the upbeat, poppy, punk tunes brought to mind STE gigs at The Joiners watching bands like Jawbreaker, JChurch and Travis Cut. Now, Italy’s Nope don’t really sound like any of those bands, other than they play driving, melodic punk that is very catchy, with guitars that have just the right amount of distortion. Another plus point is they don’t fall into the trap of having those sugary US style pop punk harmonies that are an instant turn off for me. I like this, it’s the sort of thing I find myself going back to on a regular basis when I need something a little tuneful.

Engineer (Tony)

POSITiVE REACTION - Past Mistakes CD - Engineer

Positive Reaction return with another fours tracks of Stomping Hardcore. This is muscular stuff; duel vocals, fast beats and chugging breakdowns are the order of the day. When they go fast they bring to mind Kill Your Idols and those are the bits that I like. The two vocalists sound different to each other and work pretty well with the music. I don’t have the lyrics, but the title track’s main line is “history repeats’ as they condemn the rapid move to the right, with the song’s video showing goose-stepping nazis, Hitler, Trump, Musk, tooled up coppers and lots of WWII footage. In amongst all that is footage of karate kicking, arm windmilling nonsense as they play live, they probably aren’t equating that kind of thuggery to the horrors of fascism, but it’s certainly not a positive reaction, especially as they shout ‘we’ve been divided.” That aside, if you like your hardcore short, fast and showing obvious influences from New York, Boston and Detroit, then this is for you.

Engineer (Tony)

SHREDS – Step Back CD & LP - Engineer

Hands up who thinks Discharge have got a lot to answer for? Shreds put up a wall of full tilt, intense and raging Punk Rock! Yeah.. It ain’t nothing new the sound being thrashed out here and it kind of reminds me of when I first heard the likes of Discharge – although this has a 21st Century spin. It’s good though and takes no prisoners that’s for sure. Fourteen tracks that don’t pause for breath and if that’s your thing then the Shreds need to be on your radar! Would have liked the lyrics but ya can’t have it all and I’ve enjoyed this as I was just in the right mood for this sort of thing at the time I wrote this review!

Engineer (Gaz)

SYSTEM OF SLAVES – Live Not By Lies at One Time We Dared Not Even Whisper – CD & LP via Engineer/ Little Jan’s Hammer, Deviance/DIY KT, Mass Productions/Blind Destruction/Urinal Vinyl/Rejected Abused.

After the killer LP Masters of Mankind in 2022, Cardiff’s System of Slaves are back with another banger!

Featuring members and ex-members of hard-hitters such as In The Shit, Social Experiment, Stitched Up, and Zero Again, it’s no surprise that they make a racket that ruffles a few feathers and rights a few wrongs along the way. Fans of the first album will recognise their modus operandi immediately, blending rollicking crust with metal tweaks and riffs as crunchy as a gob full of broken glass, but there’s also some great sing-along moments and melodies in here too.

From the dystopian front cover, depicting a pavement bonfire illuminating a corpse swinging from a mist-shrouded lamppost, System of Slaves set out to be unnerving and acerbic in equal measure. You listen feeling like you are on a street one short block away from a riot taking place, or perhaps where the riot finished 10 minutes ago and the residents are still peeping through gaps in the shutters. Their intros are haunting and dark (see Sex Robot or Trust Overcome as good examples), often with chimey echoing guitars and a distinctly Gothy edge (all be it a Gothy edge with a raft of feedback to transport them firmly out of Nephilim and Cure territory), but when the riffs land they launch into galloping crust in the vein of Wolfbrigade or Warchrist.

More diversly, I detect a bit of Propaghandi in the stop/start chugging if I’m not mistaken (the Wolfbrigade and Propagandhi streams sitting perfectly edge to edge in Victim for example), and there’s even a touch of Ministry’s industrial social malaise in places. When they take their foot off the gas (which isn’t often) the true potential of these head-nodding riffs shine through, the punishing Did I being a case in point.

The track available on the bands Bandcamp page - The titular System of Slaves gives a great feel for the album as a whole. dark and angry metallic crust railing against lives wasted at our desks.

This all helps set the deeply uneasy feel of the LP, swerving from death metal tweaks to freight train strength in the blink of an eye, like a lurking mugger waiting in the shadows until you stray into range. But without doubt, the star of the show, and adding to the feeling that you might just be in the wrong part of town, are Keda’s vocals. The vicious delivery of bands like Bombardament are not a world away, and there is real distain in them and the gruff backing vocals which frequently rear up in solidarity. Each song is full of hate at the subterfuge of the state, rage at the way we are all forced to live on our knees, and occasional paranoia at the way it all plays out so easily without mainstream resistance. They are perfectly delivered to make you feel that it all might go up in flames any minute.

This LP is a belter! Right up to the final swell of feedback, distant laughter, and lost signal cut-out of the guitars, the album is choc full of menace. Watch your back, there’s a whole lot more lampposts with vacancies to fill.

System Of Slaves (Alan Marshall)

ZERO AGAIN - Ever-Changing Is The Art Of Death LP - Sanctus Propaganda

For me, Zero Again’s first album, ‘A Deep Appreciation Of Suffering’ is up there with the best punk albums, ever, so following up a masterpiece like that would seem a daunting, if not impossible prospect, after all there is that old tired cliche of the “difficult second album”. But not for Zero Again, they are an exceptional band and where others may falter, they have delivered another stunningly brilliant album. It has everything their first album had, but also sees a slightly different sound, maybe a bit brighter but it still has all the elements you want, it’s fast, in places heavy but always full of rage. Payney’s guitar playing is fantastic, at times rivalling Geordie’s swirling firestorm in Killing Joke. Glenn and Ian are such a forceful rhythm section, tight, powerful and driving, but still enabling each of their talents to stand out in their own right. Then there’s Dean’s vocals; anguished, snarling and pissed off, angry at today’s world, at racism and the rise of the right, homophobia, war, trophy hunting, the human race’s apathy in averting environmental destruction and the many injustices we face under capitalism (“There ain’t no billionaires with a moral compass / There ain’t no billionaires that give a fuck…”). This phenomenal album is driven by rage at the state of the world and the ability of four talented individuals coming together to make the most wonderful racket. I’ve only had this a short while, but these songs are already lodged into my brain. Difficult second album my arse! Get your orders in now from Sanctus Propaganda.

Sanctus Propaganda (Tony) (CD on Engineer Records)