No Innocent Victim – To Burn Again

I was fairly overjoyed when I received this CD, since I’ve only heard a handful of songs by these guys, so I figured it was about time I get the privilege of getting a full-length. It was only until recently that I read the band bio. It turns out that No Innocent Victim broke up a while back, but reformed because they were disgusted with the scene. So after reading there band bio and listening to some of their older music, I had fairly high expectations. It really didn’t surpass anything that I thought it may sound like, but it was still very good. This is one of the few CD’s I’ve heard that makes me really appreciate fast music. The sound of the band seems somewhat bizarre at times. Although the music is fast and reminiscent of a street punk sound, the vocals are harsh. The whole street punk sound doesn’t leave much room for technicality on the guitarist’s part. So its basic riffs played really fast with power chords thrown in along with distortion. For me, the bass was very hard to pick out of the songs since the other instruments are fairly overpowering. There was a lot to be heard from the drummer. In every song I could expect a really good beat that sounds perfect with the rest of the band. Right away I could pick up the sound of the double kick going. This is probably due to the fact that I obsess over it. When it came down to it, there wasn’t much about this CD that I disliked, but the sound doesn’t change much from song to song.

Therefore I’d definitely recommend buying this album if you’re into the whole hardcore music scene. Although, this does have the metal influence that’s been floating around in hardcore music lately, which is mostly emphasized on the vocals. But it’s safe to say that I’ll be listening to this album quite a bit in the future.