Seizure Crypt ~ You've Been Had (album review) ... But, is the joke really on you?

Style: punk, hardcore, speedcore
Label: 316 productions
Year: 2011
Home: New York

Members: Thomas "The Madness" Reardon ~ vocals
Michael "Sos" ~ lead guitar/vocals
Grand Mal D Ranged ~ bass Doug Williamson ~ drums

I reviewed an earlier album by SC, describing them as a "cacophonic deluge of socially relevant musical madness ... slam your head against the wall mosh pit music ... though these guys sound so outta control they're smashing their heads to save you the headache." It was a pleasure to be surprised by their newest release arriving in the mail. I'm not going to do the typical follow-up review by saying how the band has come to a new level of maturity turning in their most intelligent release yet, blah blah blah. SC is about intelligence, yes, greatly hidden under the musical madness, as a peruse through their raging lyrics will show. SC have a socially pointed poison tipped sword, such as in "Bigger Than Politics" with "Spoon fed like a baby you accept it all ... taught not to know the difference/the messages sent are not/decisions informed/from all the campaigns misleading" or "Spastic Summer" with "Walking the streets & its 5 AM ... I'm going to bed while he is going to rot in work ... graveyards walk by shaking their heads/I would rather be high/than working till I'm dead" or "Born & Bred" comes the almost Buddhist advice "Do what you need to get by/follow the rules all your own/choose calmness when tensions run high ... rebuilding the mess left behind." This is the musical biography of a beer drinking party animal ... who understands the late nights are a means to escape & yet still remembers what the escape is from & that there's more to live than just getting drunk to forget. But, as for new levels of maturity. SC isn't about being mature. It's music of rebellion & was on the previous release Under The Gun & they don't change much here. The music may not be so chaotic at times, as Under The Gun felt like lots of jagged musical parts banging against each other "with no sense of melodic counterpoint, while a rhythm section attempts to destroy its instruments with every beat", but this outing is as fierce as ever. Though, with the songs largely under two minutes, I don't have handy the times for the earlier release but it was similarly a short album, there's also not much room to have too many colliding musical parts. Most of the collision feels in the dueling vocals while the instruments twist & turn away like thrash metal meets Captain Beefheart or Zappa. Actually, it may be just as cacophonic as always but my ears already know what to expect, so I'm hearing SC differently a year later. Maybe now I'm seeing the sadness underneath the beer guzzling. Maybe now I'm seeing the cacophony representing the frustration not just the beast. One doesn't bang the head against the wall to be stupid or have fun, it's because it hurts too much to think about the world. If it hurts ... then enter the crypt.

Seizure Crypt ~ Under The Gun (album review) ... Moonlight madness from the graveyard!

Style: punk, hardcore, speedcore
Label: Bad Elephant productions
Year: 2008
Home: New York

Members: Thomas "The Madness" Reardon ~ vocals
Michael "Sos" ~ lead guitar/vocals
Grand Mal D Ranged ~ bass
Doug Williamson ~ drums

A cacophonic deluge of socially relevant musical madness now into their third album. This is slam your head against the wall mosh pit music ... though these guys sound so outta control they're smashing their heads to save you the headache. Music is often thought of being smooth ... flowing from one riff or break to another, vocals that echo each other to make a choir, instruments that work off each other to form a lead/rhythm melodic experience ... SC is anything but. There's a jagged guitar line slamming into a wall at the same time as a couple vocal lines are shouted out with no sense of melodic counterpoint, while a rhythm section attempts to destroy its instruments with every beat & once in a while everyone has to take a breathe before the next slam with a momentary guitar or bass run to fill the space. Slamming into the wall at the same time, while all playing the same song of course, & seeing how the result sounds from this chaotically charged experience is an apt visual for the energy of SC. It's not that every instrument is playing something different or aiming for odd counterpoint creativity in some prog-metal ecstatic moment. This is hardcore & speed metal where everything sounds like it's going to fall apart but actually it's far from a bunch of punks not knowing how to play their instruments or trying to just make noise but rather tight arrangements that sound deceptively out of control. It's speed mixed with a lot of changes & sounds like a pain to rehearse but makes for a high energy live show of showering surprises. At barely over 20 minutes the album hits a perfect mark of tearing through an array of songs, though sometimes its hard to distinguish when one starts & another begins, without ever getting tedious in its onslaught & leaves a listener satisfied that they've got SC growling in their best moonlight madness. Not for every metalhead but those who enjoy the chaotic nature of hardcore & speed will probably enjoy checking out SC, if for no other reason than their multiple vocals attack that's a highlight of the experience.