Review
Baptists
Bushcraft

Crusty hardcore is making a sort of renaissance as of late. With more and more bands playing the basics and still more adding the style to their more broad repertoire it can make it harder and harder to pick a truly great example of the genre as opposed to a band that merely does it well.

2 years ago Vancouvers' Baptists made one hell of a debut by first signing to Southern Lord and then releasing an EP that just dropped d-beat brutality like most other bands of late could only imagine. So after some waiting the band has managed to record and release a debut LP. For a style such as theirs many bands have trouble making a truly great full length regardless of how good their singles may have been. 

From the start the band waste nary a second allowing for a slight guitar riff to meander at the beginning of "Betterment". This allows for a strong build up into the breakneck drums before the main riff kicks in. By the time the vocals kick in halfway through the song the band have built a foundation of dirty guitars and runaway drums that carry the song through it's brief length. One of the true highlights of the record as a whole is near the end. "Soiled Roots" is not only the longest song of the album (at a whopping 5 minutes) it also gives the band an opportunity to spread their wings a bit. the song starts of abrasive as usual before breaking down about a minute and a half in for a bass and drums led interlude of sorts before bringing back the winding main riff for a chorus part. This shows how truly well written the song is as no part feels wrong here and yet its far from what anyone could expect from the basic genre tags the band has earned. 

The artwork matches the darkened pallor of the record. Showing a ghostly figure swinging an axe headlong into a tree with barely a bit of light to be seen. Even with that said the production matches the songs just as well. Allowing the guitar and bass enough of a muddy sound to keep the crusty edge while allowing enough clarity for the more unwieldy and noisy riffs to truly pop out of the mire.