Insidious – “Endless Trench”
Insidious are a hardcore band from New Hampshire whose recorded music and live performance has been reviewed, favorably, by TNB before.
And what has been written about them before is how they do the style of “heavy hardcore,” serious and somber sounding but with a lot of explosive energy as well.
And a definite metal influence which is even more evident on this recording.
As you may have noted, I have not lied or said anything silly so far in this review. It’s leap year today and in honor of this day, I’m turning over a new leaf and will refrain from writing frivolous nonsense from now on.
And it has nothing to do with the fact that, Mr. Bang, is now poised on top of a filing cabinet, scrutinizing every key that I hit on my old Smith & Wesson typewriter. And he is armed with a sharp pointed stick that is aimed, perilously, at my eye.
OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
The last paragraph, was in fact, untrue. What is true is, Mr. Bang entered my office, saw what I wrote, became enraged and stapled one of my earlobes to my desk. He threatens to leave me like this until I finish the review “in a sensible and intelligible manner” or until I pass out from loss of blood.
So, in the spirit of moving forward swiftly, let’s check out these four tunes on this painfully good EP.
“My Shepherd” starts off with a push of power and a solid rock beat with distorted, squealing guitars and venom flying about. “A speck of dust/ Amongst this mess/ Another abscess/ Upon my flesh.” The guitars grind, the rhythm section hits hard and precise and the vocals trill at the end of lines much like Johnny Rotten. Then the groove is changed and corralled with a more funky, martial beat. “Shepherd to the herd/ Or a mindless sheep?/ No respect for the mentally weak.” Though, we here at TNB, take that last line to be a blatant swipe against us, we still feel this is a powerful, potent tune that slams us hard and strong and right.
After over saturating our senses with sound, “Odium Sui,” explodes with inflammatory energy and excitement all kept in check by the solid rhythm section. At first, the guitars start going haywire but then they come back to ground, nicely accentuating the vitriol vocals. “Cynicism/ I’m tired/ Misanthrope/ Isolated.” This song is like a high-tension tightrope walker on too much caffeine. “It always feel like/ Life’s a balancing act/ Like life’s air and I’m under the water.” This song roars real and true and raw. This song is my favorite on the EP. This song is like stepping on the third rail with the electricity going straight into your ear.
“Interlude” means, “an intervening period of time or something performed during an intermission.” Since I purchased some chocolate covered peppermint candies while this song was playing, I’m gonna have to go with the later. This song has echo-y, doom-y guitar licks that reverberate and leads us to…
“Endless Trench” starts with a heavy, back beat rhythm and all instruments on stun gun, firing away. This song is metal in the heavy sense, hardcore in the gruff vocal sense and punk in its sensibility to zero in and decimate. “Living a life of shit/ Wasted you have no gifts/ Holding onto regret/ Cease my existence.” This song is full of power, passion and energy; punk, metal and hardcore; and headbangs, slams and delivers- one hundred percent in its’ promise and intent.
Insidious tag themselves on their bandcamp as metal/hardcore and I think that’s about right. Though I have seen a recent trend with some new bands embracing a punk style instead of hardcore, some other new bands are still using elements of metal, hardcore and punk and coming up with some pretty exciting, potent music.
And I’d say this is what Insidious is doing, as well. I haven’t seen them live in a while and I hope this will change. But even with only one ear I’m able to hear how great this EP is and how much they have improved.
And I say this without fear of stapler wielding editors that this is some great stuff.
And I’m not kidding.
(Slimedog)
