FFWD REW

Flaccid – Demo & Glitter – Demo

self-released

What’s up with hardcore for ad agency art directors? When did shit get so crisp brutalist-inspired and Crate and Barrel-ready? Has a well-located condo actually become as fashionable as a copy of Judge’s Chung King ? When did everyone start dressing like fucking Timber Timbre? Wait does Ceremony’s singer really have a subscription to fucking Wallpaper* ? Has architecture school become as fashionable as shooting heroin into your eyeball?

Hell yeah we’re bitter: Grown-up hardcore kids are beginning to participate in neo-liberal society meaning they’re buying Bianchi bikes voting NDP and drinking Intelligentsia coffee. But thankfully there are still bands who remind us that life (and personal branding) is complete and utter horseshit. Like Flaccid and Glitter.

Which isn’t to say they sound alike: Flaccid over the course of seven songs play the type of crusty hardcore that’d feel at home in a New York squat in 1987 — the stuff d-beat types listened to before Deathreat made the genre accessible to clean-cut western New York PhD candidates. Think early Nausea: opener “The Aether” pounds in with a screaming frantic guitar solo; “Shallow Thought”’s plodding riffage is met with menacing guttural spikes of vocal rage; “Black Sun”’s vocal performance too is an unhinged rage blackout. And the recording itself sounds like shit which suits Flaccid’s music excellently: These songs manage to terrify without veering into crushingly heavy territory.

Glitter meanwhile are the more melodic — and arguably sonically diverse — of the two. “Glitter Theme” the intro sounds like the Omegas flirting with crusty garage; “Velvet Curtain”’s speedy riffage takes cues from the Angry Samoans playbook; “Wine and Linen” even has some modern hardcore overtones with the song riding along a single chord like so many of Jonah Falco’s best. But this demo stands out for one reason: Its vocals. Part deranged part schizophrenic and all misanthropic Glitter’s unhinged singing gives the sensation that this demo could fall apart at any time. It’s sloppy disgusting and most importantly frightening — which is precisely how hardcore should be.

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