Good old Terror. LA’s long-standing hardcore punks have been a scene staple for years and now bring us their sixth album, The 25th Hour. With much of the hardcore scene watering itself down over the years and/or introducing melodies and other distractions, it’s nice to know that one band knows how to keep that visceral edge.
The 25th Hour is a blitzkrieg of frantic hardcore. With songs that rarely break the 2-minute mark, it tends to make one think of grindcore. In fact, the entire album only rings up to 22-minutes and change. But the hardcore stomping and attitude embodies Terror’s approach. Straight-forward and direct, each track wraps up it’s point, allowing for plenty of savage riffing alongside vocalist Scott Vogel’s trademark bark and some gang vocals (usually to the usual well-worn hardcore topics). With many uptempo and charged assaults, it’s possible that you may not realize that a track or two has blurred together, but with the aggression of songs like “The Solution” and “Deep Rooted,” it’s really hard to argue with the results.
While one might think that it would be hard to see the band further streamlining its approach, The 25th Hour is no less effective for it. In fact, one might argue that the overall energy of the album is something that most hardcore is lacking (particularly from the older veterans – yet somehow Terror continues to get more venomous with age). Sure to please Terror fans, The 25th Hour does seem to put the ‘hard’ back into hardcore, and that is a testament to the band’s longevity.