Thee Snuff Project

Dyin' Ain't Much of a Livin'

(Hackshop Records, 2004)

If you turned down the volume on your stereo to “1” Thee Snuff Project will still make blood spurt from your ears.  Scott Taylor has one mode of singing and it’s called attack.  The whole album is just unrelenting.  From the guitar drone on the longest intro ever,  “Intro To Every Black Window”, to the varied tempos on “Start Your Own Cult” the rage doesn’t let up.  I don’t know if these kids were beaten just prior to the recording and this is how they got out the aggression, but this disc doesn’t lack energy.  It also doesn’t hoard talent, but it’s a trade off.  Pretty much the groove that’s reached amidst the crunch of every track is minimalistic.  And while I enjoy everything simple from Kraut Rock to Steven Reich, the reliance on the wah-wah peddle (“A Little Strange”, “Random Deity”) is a little disturbing.  Fortunately, the tempo changes on “Next Time I’ll Be A Spider” hints at the practice that theses DC natives have put into their craft.  The track sounds like Sabbath listening to The Who while trying to cover a Stooges song.  The Stooges connection ain’t done yet either.  On “How To Use A Butterfly Knife” there’s a fight between the rhythm section and the guest sax player.  Everything about the track is forgettable, but the sax farts on top of the guitar distortion is definitely admirable.  Lyrically, “I Contact” presents itself as the most conscious, getting out the lines, “All the kids wanna die for the USA/Let ‘em go, it’s all the same to me.”  Thee Snuff Project, when they keep the tracks short, are affective.  And even though I don’t think that they’re gonna become millionaires, they should at least make gas and beer/liquor money wherever they go for a decade or so.

Rise Against

The  Sufferer and The Witness

(Geffen, 2006)

The label that has given us Nelly Furtado, Enrique Eglasias and Ashley Simpson now graces the masses with the new Rise Against album.  Fourth overall for the band and second for a major label, the sound of the band has maintained a basic sense of cohesion over its career.  These two latest albums though have one particular aspect that is about as separate from hardcore as any other.  Strings.  On 2004’s “Siren Song of Counter Culture”, one track utilized these instruments and on their latest release, the song “Roadside” gets the treatment.  Probably, the band genuinely wanted to do this track, or at least some of them, however, it does seem a bit out of place.  Is this crass commercialization?  Who really knows?  And furthermore, who really cares?  The rest of this slab is mid to fast tempo punk that some folks like to call melodic hardcore.  The only problem with that is that phrase basically means the same thing as pop-punk does.  So, if you’re in the market for twelve punk tracks that don’t matter and a silly ass vocal, guitar and string arrangement, go consumerize this one, or just go buy “Milo Goes to College”.