CD Reviews

• Lights Go Out Zine
  So I know fuck all about this band apart from they are Irish and actually brilliant. Probably one of the best hardcore full length records I have had the pleasure of reviewing for ages. It's dirty, powerful and incredibly mature. This record really delivers.
  
  "The Weight Of Your World On My Shoulders" has a hint of CBK (when they were actually good, don't get me started on their latest CD...) and is probably my favourite track on the record. One of the things I really admire about this band is that although they are current in their delivery, and clearly punk as fuck, they don't chuck everything out at warp speed, it's refreshing.
  
  Crusty vocals and filthy hooks accompany some of the best basslines I have heard in a while, and the drumming is actually creative! Not all blast beats, which is super fucking cool. There are some wicked change downs in this record, sometimes complex, always catchy as fuck. 14 tracks too, so it's real bargain.
  
  I am gagging to see them live. Ruthless!! I love it!!
  

• Metal Ireland
  Galway's OFAC showed they had both qualities with their last album, which did unfortunately go under the radar. Or at least under many metallers' radar, given that they've played a ton of shows in Europe to what were hopefully supportive crowds.
  
  In a manner not entirely dissimilar to Neifenbach, interviewed here recently, these guys show that commitment, message and determination in delivery all combust in exciting and driving music. The blastbeat that opens 'The Weight Of Your World On My Shoulders', and the D-Beat it continues into show that one off for anyone in doubt.
  
  Variety in here comes mainly by way of the speed settings. Only Fumes are as capable and powerful at the slow and mid paced tempos as they are at the straight out hardcore.
  
  That means that tracks like 'Apathy' fly by in a violent burst of tightly focused punk (wanting only for a little more bass in the production) - with ferocious chuggidy palm muting in there making it all the more vitriolic.
  
  They slow however to a rousing weight with 'The Colour Purple' (ie what you come out feeling when the album's done), using a heavy tom batter and darkened, unresolved chords to lend the kind of feel you'd sooner expect from Coldwar.
  
  These twelve tracks, though similar enough, seek not to reinvent the wheel. They merely implore to attach firecrackers to it, and roll it down a steep hill in the direction of the Irish orthodoxy.
  
  It would be entirely disingenuous for me to claim some knowlegde or appreciation of the finer points of hardcore. All I know is that when it mixes with a little bit of metal - on its own terms, that is - the results can be exhilarating.
  
  This is as direct and satisfying an example as is needed. And the little Ska homage in 'Wreck' is fucking genius.
  
  4.5/5 - Earl Grey ::: 26/08/2010