Powerviolence, as a genre, took me a while to get in to. I enjoyed the gruff vocals, the breakdowns, and the stop and start frantic energy of the faster passages, but something about the bass-heavy mix turned me off. I've always enjoyed music with raw production (Burzum, The Germs, early Johnny Cash,etc), but the thick, sludgy bass tone employed by most powerviolence bands manages to drown out the guitar. Now, I am the kind of person who believes that there is good music in every genre, so I decided to give myself a crash course on powerviolence.
To Live a Lie Records, an excellent, Raleigh based powerviolence, grindcore, and hardcore label, offers multiple packaged deals on their website. I bought the deal that offered 10 7 inch ep's for $10. I received the book thick stack of records about four days later. This split was at the top of the stack and it immediately caught my eye. The absurdity of the cover, the skate themed band name, the slick red vinyl- I knew I had to slap it on the turntable immediately.
Side A contains seven songs from the skate-obsessed powerviolence act Busted Bearings. As my first introduction to the genre, Busted Bearings prove to be an impressive forward. They play breakdown heavy, incredibly fast powerviolence with nasty, nihilist lyrics. I actually enjoyed the thickness of the bass in the production. I found that the low end actually manages to increase the heaviness. Topics covered in their songs include cruelty to animals (Spare Any Change), The absurdity of punk fashion (King of Punxxx), and mental illness (Losing My Mind). Some of these lyrics are truly brutal. For example, "Sledge to the face/break your grin/brag about/ your rage within" is violent but I also detect a lot of humor. It comes across as very tongue in cheek.
The second band on the split, Bully are not nearly as unique. They play pretty standard hardcore with whiny, angsty lyrics in the vein of Converge without the musical depth or instrumental talent. I have no problem with emotional turmoil as subject matter, but when the words are as juvenile as "I'm trapped on the inside/ judging eyes are on the outside/ I've been disguising how I feel" I can't help but laugh. It comes across as more 13 year old girl with a live journal than emotionally sincere lyricist.
Overall, this split is decent. The A side offers a great introduction to powerviolence, humorous, violent lyrics and crushing breakdowns included. Unfortunately, side B drags the whole split down.
5/10
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