Posted on: November 6, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Not the type of cookie monster-emo culmination that many hardcore bands are latching onto for rapid success, My Revenge! mix together traditional Minor Threat / Sick of it All-style hardcore with traditional metal and 80s punk. For example, the opening track “Haddonfield Illinois” shows the influence of straight-forward punk, most noticeably The Misfits. Never one to slow down, each track on “Less Plot, More Blood” blasts through at about a minute and a half, enough to be affected by the music but not quite long enough to get turned off by it. Each track may be at a million miles per hour, but provide enough harmony for individuals to find themselves totally in the music – what is primarily heard on this disc are Spencer’s vocals, the guitars, and the drums. It is like the bass has just been pushed to the side for the recording, but it might just be hard to hear in its intermediary role, finding itself losing out between the guitars and bass.

This is not hardcore, this is transcendent of musical genreification, and hearkens back to the days in which The Germs, Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, and the like could embrace a number of different styles of music without being called sell-outs or ignored by the prominent hardcore flavor of the week. Insinuating each of their song with political statements, My Revenge! doesn’t seem to be content with just being the musical vanguard of this new form, but rather as open-minded and as politically charged as Minor Threat or Find Him and Kill Him. The disc has enormous playability, because each second of “Less Plot, More Blood” is so dense that the disc feels twice as long as it is in reality.

The recording is solid, the band even more so, and lyrics like “Big business shouldn’t mix in the first place…keep it up and get trucks and wheels across your face!” and a resurgent bassline in “You May Be Hot But You Have No Personality” ensure that there is something different and exciting for everyone. The all-together chorus of the aforementioned track of “I refuse to be your way” is an immediate crowd-polarizer, and singlehandly places their star amongst the greatest punk and hardcore bands of the last thirty years. Able to move seamlessly through sounds and sentiments, My Revenge! will no doubt have much more fame in the near future, after the right people pick up “Less Plot, More Blood”

Top Tracks: You May Be Hot But You Have No Personality, Trucks and Wheels Across Your Face

Rating: 8.6/10

My Revenge! – Less Plot, More Blood / 2004 Thorp Records / 13 Tracks / http://www.my-revenge.com / http://www.thorprecords.com / Reviewed 24 September 2004

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