Outrage – Broken

Boston Massachusettes’s Outrage is a high-octane hardcore ride, heavy on the mid-tempo breakdowns and packed with unforgiving and raw vocals.  It’s a tried and tested formula sure to provide a good time – after all, lots of energy and aggression are a must for hardcore enthusiasts.  On this account alone, Outrage’s first full-length, Broken, should easily find appreciation within the hardcore crowd.

Outrage’s raw execution should garner some attention.  Much in the vein of other Panic Records signings, including Wait in Vain and Trial, this isn’t your younger brother’s sugar coated hardcore.  No, this is hardcore in the style of your raggedly clothed distant cousin’s, ear popping, head banging car rides.  Complete with the hollow bashing of drums and crunching, technical breakdowns of bands like earlyConverge, Outrage is simple and primitive in its intensity.  My only complaint is that vocalist Sean O’Brien tends to sound similar across tracks and doesn’t really push his boundaries in any particular direction beyond a fairly steadfast, singular toned scream.  It’s certainly not detrimental, but it does make the twenty-six minute album feel longer than its short run-time suggests.

But the vocals aren’t the album’s high point, for that we need not look further than Broken’s notable and unpredictable tempo changes.  Tracks like “Dead Air” straddle a delicate line between melodic and discordant with uniquely defined riffs that hit all those odd and underused notes.  Others like “Veins” slow to a grinding pace in which every lyric and every vocal just sort of bleeds with a sort of agonizing pain only found among hardcore bands like Outrage.  While Outrage is deeply entrenched in the hardcore movement, they also dip their toe into post-hardcore territory for a brief interlude half way through the album.  Admittedly, providing listeners with a little breather is admirable, but the effort feels misguided, and may have been more effective had it been divided throughout the album, rather than in one two-minute clump.

While flawed, fans of raw hardcore will probably find approval in Outrage’s uncompromising style and sincere delivery.  Considering Panic Record’s history for high caliber releases, the quality of Outrage’s full-length debut doesn’t come as a surprise.  There’s enough inter-album variation and evidence that the band is willing to take a chance with something different to make the band appealing in and of themselves.  It’s not perfect, but considering 2009’s bland and over-crowded hardcore landscape, Broken should be an easy choice for fans of hardcore.