Hatebreed - The Rise of Brutality (2003)

Hatebreed, for those of you who haven't heard of them before, are a 5 piece Metalcore/Hardcore band from New Haven, Connecticut who formed in 1994. They consist of Jamey Jasta (Vocals), Wayne Lozinak (Guitar), Frank Novinec (Guitar), Chris Beattie (Bass), and Matt Byrne (Drums). They are currently signed to E1 Records.

The Rise of Brutality, is Hatebreed's 3rd full-length album, following 2 other full-length albums and 3 EP's. When it was released it reached #30 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The album consists of 12 tracks (the U.K. version has 13), which include "Tear it Down", "Straight to Your Face", "Facing What Consumes You", "Live for This", "Doomsayer", "Another Day, Another Vendetta", "A Lesson Lived is a Lesson Learned", "Beholder of Justice", "This is Now", "Voice of Contention", "Choose or Be Chosen", and "Confide in No One". The album as a whole was really kick ass. Each song makes you feel as though you just want to beat the shit out of somebody, while the lyrics are kind of upbeat (mostly positive outlooks throughout the lyrics). It's the guitar riffs that really drive this album, at points simplistic, but they work, the tracks mostly don't need solo's as it wouldn't really fit with the rest of it. If I had to reccommend some choice tracks out of the album, you should definitely listen to "Straight to Your Face", "Live for This", and "This is Now". The three of those tracks really drive the album, they hit you with a blast of sound which actually works, unlike some other bands (examples: iwrestledabearonce and Preschool Tea Party Massacre). If there is a downside to the album, it would be that most of the tracks sound just like breakdowns, which in turn, make the breakdowns sound even more breakdown-y, you'll know what I mean when you listen to it.

Overall, the album is perfect for moshing to. If you're into Throwdown, Walls of Jericho, DevilDriver, Madball, Agnostic Front (Madball is actually a side project of Agnostic Front), Icepick (Jamey Jasta's side project), Heaven Shall Burn, Bury Your Dead, Unearth, or Parkway Drive, then you should check out Hatebreed. The album was released on October 28, 2003 and is available on Amazon and iTunes.

Overall Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

Buy the Album
Hatebreed's Website

Preschool Tea Party Massacre - Hardcore Died with Hitler (2006)

For those of you who haven't heard of PTPM (which I'm guessing is a large chunk of you), they are a nine piece Grindcore band (yes, nine), that formed in 2002 in Newark, New Jersey. According to their myspace page, they consist of Supreme Allah (Vocals), Concubine (Drum Programming, Effects), Easy Money (Vocals, Guitar, Drum Programming), Don Carnage (Over the Top Cookie Monster Vocals), DJ RUFFneck (Vocals), Stumpy (Weird Noises, Laughing, Fights Fires), The Edge (Vocals), Shan Bone (Will Contribute Soon), and Joey Wallz (All instruments). They are currently signed to no label, and all of their cd's are self produced. And now onto the review.

Preschool Tea Party Massacre's fifth album release, entitled "Hardcore Died with Hitler" consits of 26 (yes, twenty six) tracks. The tracks in order are "Caveman Dildo", "Fuck Her and Kill Her But Not in That Order", "Charles Lindbergh was a Fuck Machine", "Say Cheese and Get Raped", "Pope-Mobile Drive By", "Sand Burial Fuckfest", "No Viewing Octopus Porno on Company Time", "I Swerved to Miss a Cat and Hit 36 Kids", "Climbing The Ladder of Exhibitionism At The Old Folks Home", "Dead Baby Eaten by Dogs", "Doggie Style Cyber Sex With Marilyn Monrobot", "Best Things In Life Are Free, Then Why Did I Pay To Get AIDS", "Beaten With Your Own Cowboy Boots", "Malibu Is For Gay Guidos and Women", "I Don't Just Develop Film, I Develop Families", "Black Girlfriend Killed Grandma", "Sausage King Shooting Spree", "The Story of the Lonely Giraffe Who Fucked a Tree, a Fence, and a Shed", "Breastfeeding A Boozed Whore", "If You Got The HIV. Holla At Us (Cause We Never Rock Jimmy Hats)", "It Fucking Hurts When I Piss", "Since When Is Caging a Child Illegal", "Of Course I'm Not a Real Person. I'm a Big Piece of Poop", "Managing To Fuck A 16-Year-Old", "You Would Rise To The Occasion In A Room Full of Guys", and "Cape + Mask + Gun = Neighborhood Shooting Rampage". Oh so many ways to describe this album, I'm going to start with the easiest one, no wonder it was self-produced, it's hard to listen to. I'm not joking, this is one of the few albums that I forced myself to listen to. The guitar was soooooooooo very simplistic that I got tired of the repetition. The drumming just got annoying after a while. It was quite literally just the snare drum for a good half of the album, it sounded worse than Metallica's Saint Anger album (and I had a really hard time getting through that one). There was hardly any "singing" on the album at all. It was unintelligible growls, high pitched black metalesque screams, and then randomly throughout the album was a guy acting all gangster. There was also the annoyance of the random techno aspect throughout most of the songs. The last track on the album, "Cape + Mask + Gun = Neighborhood Shooting Rampage" is 13:36 long, it should only be 3:00 long. Why you might ask, mainly because the first 10:30 of the song is nothing, quite literally nothing, just dead air, and then it's just a random conversation between two people while a keyboard plays quietly in the background. That's not even the worst part of it. The album is riddled with soundbytes and clips from movies. All of the tracks have them, some even have multpile ones.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this album to anyone. The only way I'd recommend this is if you hate iwrestledabearonce, and I'd only recommend this if you wanted to start to like iwrestledabearonce. The only thing I liked about the album were three of the soundbytes and nothing else.

Overall score: 0.8 out of 5

Buy the Album
Preschool Tea Party Massacre's Website