5 out of 5

Label: Acerbic Noise Development

Producer: Adam Vincent (recorded by)

Whoosh, thank you, AND, it finally happened – amongst all of the really good hardcore the label has put out, songs and moments would pop their head into greatness, but some defining album was seemingly outta reach.  Enter Chupa Cobras.  What’s especially diggable about this is that the band in part sprang, I very much believe, from a group I wasn’t overly impressed with – The Ed Kemper Trio.  EKT had a nice thump and enthuse to their sound, but it never solidified into its own bag, for some reason, and the tempo rarely changed.  While ECC has the trouble of figuring out where to start, since almost all their tracks are a bluster of drum and guitar fury, the album admittedly doesn’t have the best introduction, just jumping right into a track.  But you’re past it quick enough, Kenny Johnson’s fast-paced fretting and howling vocals and Chad Baker’s stop-on-a-dime drumming compelling you onward and upward.  The first song is actually probably the weakest on the album, but it serves as a good surprise in that two things happen – first off, it doesn’t directly sound like anything else.  Sure, it takes notes from the post-hardcore world and the chord progressions are like a sped-up Dazzling Killmen, but I have to think to get those references, whereas a lot of the AND bands – a lot of great output, mind you, but my following comment still stands – a lot of AND bands almost immediately remind you of something.  They’re putting a lot of heart into the music, but more often than not, you know what the next beat is gonna’ be.  The second thing that happens – whoa shit guitar interplay.  And not just like someone playing rhythm and someone playing lead, more like dueling guitar lines, like Dysrhytmia but somehow Johnson is able to keep his head above the riffs and still screaming his butt off.

The production – while sorta fuzzy – is also a big bonus here.  EKT made the conscious decision of moving the low-end rattle up front to get a Shellac kinda thump.  Here our low-end is pretty low down in the mix, but it allows that guitar work to really shine above all else.  The bass sorta gets lost in things (the drums are still whacked hard enough that you get the full effect), but overall it lets the sorta static-y feel of things be a lot warmer than it could’ve been if everything had been turned up to ten.

Our lyrics also stand out (from what can be discerned)  – it’s less complaining and more contemplative than the majority of metal, making for a compelling mix with the energy with which it’s all spat.  And you can always follow along with the hard-to-read but pretty badass artwork.

But why five stars?  I mean, it’s good, but what’s what?  Well – it just… works.  At the perfect moments.  The record keeps surprising me.  I get distracted by an amazing drum fill on one track and miss out on some cool stuff the guitars are doing, or suddenly your ears pick up the bass and realize it has a pretty sick jammy sound, working right alongside the drums.  But what kills me is a lil’ track called Gravity.  The double guitars on here already impress, working a ton more riffage into this style than a non-instrumental band would normally bother with.  But on Gravity, at the point where the track would, for many bands, end, the second guitar whips up for a quick riff.  Find.  Cool outro.  But then it keeps going.  The song finds this intense new level, Adam Vincent twiddling some wizard knobs to amp the sound up to a hidden notch where it suddenly tears you ten new earholes.  It catches me off-guard every time.  Then, of course, next song is a curveball, and they slow the pace down for a more bare drums-and-singin’ style heavy track.  You’re impressed.  But what’s this?  Amongst all the fast paced metal you’re going to give me a 7-minute closer that manages to be compelling throughout its whole runtime?  OKAY STOP, STOP, YOU’VE GOT YOUR FIVE STARS