2007 was a huge year for this group of young men from Sacramento. A relentless touring schedule in support of their debut full-length, Walking Disease, fueled a hype machine - not necessarily in a bad way - that landed them on Malfunction Records and onto a lot of hardcore kids' favorites of '07 lists.
Plagues picks up where the band left off, unleashing an unadulterated and potent assault of visceral and bitter hardcore. "Scatter" leads in with echoing guitars and building drumming before launching into "Babylon, CA." The sub-minute cut is filled with crunching riffs, pounding drums, and coarse yells. "Flood" is another quick number; it hits like a modern day Infest or Negative Approach with its machinegun riffs and biting lyrics.
"Manifest Destination" actually reaches beyond the minute mark
a rarity. The bridge section really sets the song up for something good to happen, but it just never seems to happen unfortunately. "Lepers to Feed Lepers" is the answer to what should have come after the previous track, though I could have gone for a couple more rounds of the final lines as they're super gnarly. "Kill the Snakes" is easily the most traditional song structure-wise. If the band decides to go for longer cuts as opposed to the thirty-second blasts, they could really break new ground
for themselves, at least.
The artwork and layout accompanying this 7" is an accurate representation of the music with a gruesome corpse that is overrun with insects occupying its body. The production is solid with a good mix and it packs a significant punch.
Perhaps the major downfall to Plagues is its length. Six songs in five minutes on a one-sided 7" leaves something to be desired. But when your full-length is eleven songs in nine minutes, I suppose I shouldn't have expected that much.
If last year was the breakout year for Trash Talk then that means that 2008 will be the year that things go ballistic.
