Manchester Punk Festival Releases 37th Compilation
Manchester Punk Festival have released the 37th volume of their compilation series ahead of this year’s festival. Manchester Punk Festival Vol. 37 is…
hail unamerican! - Kung Fu Records
Take a moment to think of Kung Fu Records. What come to your mind? Probably bands like Blink182, The Ataris, The Vandals, Tsunami Bomb, God Awfuls, Anti-Freeze, Useless I.D., and Bigwig; you know, those pop-punk type of bands. You wouldn’t think of harder bands like Atreyu, A Static Lullaby, Comeback Kid, or Misery Signals. But thanks to the label’s latest signing, maybe you will now…
So here enters Underminded with their debut full length entitled hail unamerican!. The San Diego quartet definitely bring a new sound to the Kung Fu Records roster. Their hardcore sound is thunderous, with blazing guitar riffs, biting bass lines, and heavy hitting drumming. The spectacular guitar breakdown onBurn The Metropolis always catches me off guard and forces me to look at the booklet again for the track name. The vocals are strong and power, very similar to that of Alexisonfire and Atreyu. They aren’t so much sung as screamed, in fact, it’s pretty much impossible to decipher the lyrics without the booklet; and even then it is difficult. This is a bit of disappointment, cause if you read over the lyrics, some of them are really good. Take one look at the lyrics for Burn The Metropolis and you’ll see what I mean.
Underminded‘s hail unamerican! is a hard hitting, hardcore, album. Featuring eleven short tracks that blast through your speakers, the album will make any hardcore fan go crazy. But for someone who isn’t a hardcore fan, and more of a Kung Fu Records fan, then this will be a surprise to you. A lot of the songs sound somewhat similar to those around it, although you can pick out a few differences here and there; there never is anything incredibly mind blowing (other then Burn The Metropolis once again). It is somewhat difficult to imagine why Kung Fu would sign these guys, I personally hope they don’t sign too many bands of this genre and change the sound that the label is so well known for.