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Combat Crisis

Face The Crowd

Written by: PP on 30/07/2009 22:33:46

Combat Crisis play intense, in-your-face street punk with lots of hardcore influence and a ton of melodic gang vocals. Their new album "Face The Crowd" sees the band crush the pedal-to-the-floor in all songs, while firing off lots of cool riffs and a couple of excellent choruses in the process - kind of like The Casualties but more hardcore punk. The songs are simple, often consisting of just a couple of riffs and a non-variating d-beat throughout the entire album, but what their songs can't do instrumentally, the band compensates with raw attitude, excellent politically/socially-charged lyrics, and a great deal of energy throughout.

What you should expect is a madman of a vocalist (who in this case is, actually, a woman) yelling her lungs out to the extent that it feels like her vocal chords are history after just one song, lots of whooah-whooah backing vocals, and topics ranging from homosexuality, sexism, racism, anti-government and the usual left wing agenda. Not particularly original, I know, but the aggressive stance this band takes both vocally and instrumentally makes it all sound nicely convincing. The production is nice and raw, leaving the guitars sharp and garage-y, which fits perfect for a band like Combat Crisis because had they been any more polished, much of the anger would inevitably disappear from the mix. As it stands now, you can hear every pissed off word their vocalist shouts, but the DIY feel of the record is still strongly present.

Album highlights include the title track, "Fool Me Twice", "Not Afraid", "Combat Crisis" "Nothing To Lose", opener "We Represent" and "World Won't Wait". I've chosen most of these because they are ones with most melodic gang vocals providing a cool melodic contrast to the harsh scream/yell of the main vocalist, often resulting in a relatively catchy chorus in the process. But while the thirteen track (fourteen, if you count the bonus track) album may very well be from the upper echelon of hardcore/street punk releases, just like the recent Shook Ones record in melodic hardcore, it still suffers from one clearly identifiable problem: it just won't bring anyone new to the genre. The songs are all good hardcore/street punk tracks, but if you didn't like bands in the genre in the first place, Combat Crisis aren't the ones that are going to change your mind about the music style. That being said, good stuff overall.

Download: Combat Crisis, Fool Me Twice, We Represent
For the fans of: The Casualties, really old Anti-Flag
Listen: Myspace

Release date 30.06.2009
Concrete Umbrella Records