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.
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