Album Review: Trash Talk – Awake EP
Do you like angry hardcore? Do you like the effect of a band blowing up in your face like a nuclear bomb? Do you like to feel intimidated by your MP3 player? Well look no further! You’ve just found your new favourite band.
Trash Talk is a hardcore four piece from Sacramento, California and are currently shredding up the hardcore scene. They are well known for their on stage antics (massive mosh pits, constant stage diving), off stage antics (sneaking fans without tickets into a gig, giving fans who got burned with fake tickets free merch. How rock n roll is that?) and brutal power violence sound, Trash Talk embody every idea and stereotype of Hardcore music you can think of whilst throwing their own twist into the mix.
“Awake” is a five track EP kicking you in the teeth consistently from start to end. The title track is a blaze of venom, fast riffs and smashed cymbals. Slander sounds like the instruments have been fast forwarded to the point where you can’t believe a human could play that fast. Staples of the genre come up in this song such as crowd chants and repetitive repeating of lyrics. Blind Evolution sounds a lot more skate punk than hardcore with the band paying homage to their roots. The snare drum takes a bigger part in the song. Burn Alive is by far the highlight of the album being one of the angriest hardcore songs I’ve heard in years. Final song Gimme Death is a lot slower and again pays homage to their skate punk roots. The lyrics are all politically tinged with the video for Burn Alive being about a riot in the face of police brutality.
This is a must have for all hardcore fans but for those not accustomed to the genre I would advise avoidance. The EP is so in your face, so p****d off and chaotic that many not into this music will likely be horrified by it. For a band like Trash Talk less is defiantly more as I can’t image listening to an album so threatening for ten to twelve tracks. I give this album 8 out of 10. Brilliantly nuclear hardcore.
For fans of: Gallows, Last Witness, The Ghost of a Thousand
Listen to: Awake, Burn Alive