Album Review – Thought Vomit, Punks Brutal Retaliation / Sync The Skies

After the completion of their self financed Makes No Cents tour in April 2016, Thought Vomit have been hard at work on their fourth self produced studio album, Punks Brutal Retaliation/Sync The Skies. Glass Jaw starts proceedings with samples and screaming feedback that lead into a riff that suddenly gains momentum and intensity like it’s been injected with cheap amphetamines, as the pace eases back down I find that I’m transported temporarily back to the eighties hardcore scene, where I first encountered crossover albums like this.

The first nine tracks are all an intense assault and battery of old school crossover hardcore thrash, it’s not until you get to the penultimate track, Flame In The Rain, that things change, and when I say change I mean it, this is a melodic quiet number bookended by samples and sound effects that stands out from the rest of album, it sounds like a completely different band has hijacked the recording studio. After this you then get Sync The Skies, weighing in at almost twelve minutes in length this is an intense and more menacing delivery than the tracks that preceded it, it breaks from the slower paced sinister delivery into growled hardcore and it then settles back into its menacing pace and tone, it’s tempo and intensity varying constantly through this epic final track, this is another unexpected track that for me lifts the album.

This album owes a huge debt to the more recognised bands from this scene such as Suicidal Tendencies and DRI, as well as to the original punk bands that pioneered hardcore, take a bow Black Flag and Dead Kennedys, and the myriad underground and DIY hardcore bands that made the original scene such an exciting movement to be part of. Much of the album is what you’d expect to receive, but the fact that two incredibly diverse and genre hopping tracks are included raises this album above some of its contemporaries. For me hardcore will always be at it’s best when experienced live, but this is a welcome addition to a genre that can all too often slip into a predictable and comfy rut.

Thought Vomit‘s web presence can be found here and their Facebook page is here