4 out of 5

Label: Witching Hour

Produced by: Jason Bentley (recorded by)

What a long, wonderful trip from the thrashy punk of early Racebannon to the menacing hardcore of their conclusion, some 15 years later. And while that decade.5 isn’t necessarily the longest run, this wasn’t a band that struggled to find its voice: it had one, in vocalist Mike Anderson, crazy shout-singing across the group’s forays into grind and noise and so on.

There were rotations elsewhere in the roster which probably influenced how much they leaned into one sound over another, but there’s not really an “off” year in the timeline – RCBNNN went all-in on whatever they were doing at the time. So even way near the start, with their first official 7″, the group’s mixing in funky basslines with pummeling thrash, while Dixon is doing more screaming than his tell-tale babble, but its still there, scrambling to fit in words inbetween words.

We get four songs here, all worthwhile: an ambient, horror-movie creakiness leads in to all-out punker Goteamgogreenlightgo; while on the B-side, tempo changes and mix-ups between grind and punk and chaotic funk happen on Red Hot Ranger and Twice Around Pluto. This was a group with energy to spare, and in love with being loud, but clearly wanting to be a little different and fun, too.

The lo-fi recording from Jason Bentley is pretty perfect for this – all the levels hit well, playing into the bass well – but if there’s ever been one soft spot along the way, it’s the lyrics. Sometimes Anderson finds the right mix of narrative and terror to match the group’s intensity; sometimes the story just doesn’t go anywhere or the subject matter is too open ended. It’s a little of the latters here, mixed with some youthy vibes in the subject matter. But I dig that there’s a lyric sheet there for me to be able to criticize this stuff!