this album has got me hanging by the balls.

PRIZE COUNTRY
With Love
(Hex)


http://www.deafsparrow.com/prize-country-withlove-2010-review.htm

I am not sure where the hooks are, but I know they are there because this album has got me hanging by the balls. It’s the kind of angular hardcore that twirls one too many times to be truly memorable, just when you think you got a melody down there comes a new turn, one more twist in a line of seemingly hundreds, but that it is immediate nevertheless.

No chugga chugga, no beefcaked dudes, no crew cuts, no meatballs with an 'I’m gonna kill you' attitude, nor lyrics about wanting to kill all those who stabbed you in the back, just loud songs with fragmented guitars and sectioned drumming and well-pronounced screams galore. In other words, fuck hardcore, this is hardcore.



I came to know Prize Country via their release through Exigent Records, but I never got a chance to actually sit down with one of their recordings. This is the shit for types who dig deep into Drive Like Jehu, for those who could have been part of the fan club of These Arms Are Snakes but did not join because there was too much fluff and softness in their releases. For those who were almost satisfied with Transistor Transistor, but with time have come to long for more, here it is.



In With Love, Prize Country cut the fat and launch themselves with strident force, crafting songs out of thin air, stopping short of getting hysterical and celebrating Festivus, the songs of In Love slice and dice, bounce with short chords that rarely amount to full on riffs, edge out via high vocals that are not sang as much as spoken out loud. There is not a clear winner here, the record is pretty even. Solid and enjoyable. I could have done without the seasonal clapping in “Cement”, but it fits the jumpy nature of the song. So that’s just me bitching.

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