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Fixed Fight

Antebellum

Written by: PP on 12/02/2022 01:14:50

Fixed Fight is a brutalized hardcore quartet from Copenhagen that used to go with the moniker Torment back in the day. Their sophomore album "Antebellum" is a Tue Madsen production, which explains its harsh, metallic approach to the genre. It's heavy on breakdowns and muscular vocals, which are dominant in the mix given how closely they resemble a traditional metal growl.

Indeed, "Antebellum" is a hard-hitting record that centralizes around heavy chugging and an uncompromising, take-no-prisoners approach to hardcore. You can detect influence from old-school New York Hardcore bands like Madball, but otherwise, their metallic expression is more akin to work by the likes of Hatebreed and perhaps Throwdown to some extent. But where Jamey Jasta translates his vicious bark into something that stands out with charisma, Christian Engelhardt's growls are regrettably monotone in comparison, only salvaged by the contrasting vocals by Marius Thomsen on e.g. "Bodies". Here, the metalcore-esque backing barks add variety to the otherwise anonymous lead vocals, which incidentally were also a problem with the band back in the Torment days.

Towards the end of the record, Fixed Fight deviates from hardcore towards some form of unspecified metal that's not exactly pigeonholeable to a specific subgenre as such. It's drastically different from the beatdown approach of the first half, which means the record comes across as somewhat unfocused. It would do wonders if Fixed Fight just stuck to one style, for example, the sound on "Den Rige Mands Enshomed" for a blackened hardcore style, or alternatively, the straight-up hardcore on "Hollow Man".

As it stands now, "Antebellum" is merely a decent hardcore record but one that feels too anonymous compared to its peers. Too few tracks stand out, and the unvaried main vocals sound near-identical between the tracks throughout the record. Whenever they add the secondary screams, the expression is immediately much better. Food for thought.

Download: Bodies, Hollow Man, Den Rige Mands Ensomhed
For the fans of: Throwdown, Madball, Hatebreed
Listen: Facebook

Release date 14.01.2022
Self Released