4 out of 5

Label: Victory Records

Producer: Steve Evetts

Why did I sleep on Snapcase?  At one point I owned several of their albums… but it was a bid at being cool, I’d purchased them to impress local cool-kid Brooks, and though I was getting into what I would now say is palatable “hardcore” that all the kids in Middle / High School were digging on (mumble mumble Rage Against the Machine), I don’t think my ears were quite ready for Snapcase then.  But I denied it.  I believe I ended up selling what I had out of claims of it being derivative… that was probably it, in part, but I think I also sold it because someone else dug it, and I needed to figure out music on my own.  A lot of my heavier music went bye bye during those years, as I wandered indie wastelands in search of sounds I appreciated.

Years later, heavy music would come back in to my life in a much more stable fashion, meaning I had better grips on what I dug.  Snapcase was looming, though they still sort of got the almighty brush-off from a lot of kids.

And I sort of get it.  Victory Records hangs out right at that cusp of legit, producing a ton of respectable acts but they’re (or were) the Matador of hardcore, leveraging a lot of their close-to-radio-friendly screamo acts into radio friendly Spin covers.  Snapcase is also moderately, as mentioned, derivative, so though it wasn’t completely honest I can get a gist of what irked me – they picked their formula of speed punk and have mostly stuck to it, a quick guitar or bass riff that then brings the yelled / spoken vocals in with the drums.  There’s not much variation on this structure.

But that’s ignoring something very basic: that that structure, and the group, rock your ears off.  It might be a predictable headbang for almost every track – during ‘Progression’ I definitely kept glancing at my player to see if the album was repeating already but, nope, it’s a new song – but while my eardrums hold out I can listen to that predictability forever.  The intensity of the shouting sort of overwhelms the meaning of the words, if you look at the liner notes, and although I rag on Cave In for getting too mopey sometimes, I think that Converge / Cave In approach to more emotive hardcore is a harsher experience overall, because Snapcase feels more like dudes smiling to each other while they’re rocking out than just eff-off aggression (which is generally a good component of hardcore).  Producer Steve Evetts turns the whole thing up to level million, everything is blessedly crisp (which, like Jerry Finn’s handling of pop-punk superstars, is probably why he’s the go-to producer for bringing your hardcore punk group into the spotlight), so regardless of the “fun” that seems to be hiding beneath the perhaps painted-on anger, few albums sound as devastating as ‘Progression.’

Maybe you’ll get a dismissive headshake from some leather jacket wearin’ tough, but Snapcase produces some delicious hardcore punk.  Repetitive, sure, but polished to a cutting edge that assuredly slices with ease – not a deep cut, or however you want to extend this metaphor, but guaranteed to nick ya at the very least.