Trash Talk, the hype band come hardcore mainstays through relentless touring, have a lot of eyes and ears on them with the release of their self-titled album. Adhering to the D.I.Y. ethics that are the backbone of punk, the Sacramento band opted to release their newest album themselves, leaving behind Deathwish Inc., one of the largest labels in hardcore. If that didn't turn enough heads, Trash Talk also chose Steve Albini to sit behind the switches for this one. As an analog purist, producer extraordinaire (responsible for recording Nirvana's Nevermind amongst many others), and key player in notable bands Big Black and Shellac, can he capture the rawness of the band's live sound? Can Albini and Trash Talk together create an album heavier than its expectations?
Within the first minute of dropping the needle onto the grooves of this album, the listener is attacked by a blitzkrieg of concentrated fury. The warning is fair though. Like the tremors that sign a coming earthquake, the bass line slowly rumbles with the power of a fault line. It's this low-end emphasis that gives the album force through out its entirety.
The live production of the album gives it the tone and feeling of a power violence record, though the fast parts are, literally, not quite up to speed. The songwriting doesn't stray too far from that heard on previous releases, Trash Talk tweaks certain structural flaw in the songs while succeeding in amplifying the intensity of the their sound with thicker, more booming drums, louder, more wailing guitars and throatier, more stressed vocals.
While Plagues was simply a sign of the apocalypse, its brevity keeping it from devastating the listener, this album is not one, but all four of the horsemen. Consider yourself warned.
