CALORIS IMPACT from Graz, Austria plays modern hardcore that sits comfortably next to BUGGIN, STRESS POSITIONS, and GEL, with a dash of of surf-y rock’n’roll added to the usual two-stepping riffs and breakdowns that works well. The swagger in these songs is refreshing, especially when paired with the vicious, politically-charged vocal delivery. Check out “Arrogance,” it’s a proper rocker.
One look at the cover art and Miss Machine from DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN comes to mind. The intro evokes the chaotic collage of mass media madness from CURSED’s Architects of Troubled Sleep. The second track “Normalcy Über Alles” erupts into a frenzy of blastbeats and heavy HM-2w riffage à la TRAP THEM, until the middle weirdly features a spoken word part that almost feels like rapping with scratches included. A not so common choice, to mix dark hardcore with elements of hip hop. The vocals would fit well in a band like EVERYTIME I DIE; they also keep a foot in post-hardcore (or mathcore, to be more specific). It keeps throwing you curveballs and mixing genres that seemingly shouldn’t mix together, but the backbone is always dark hardcore and CONVERGE-styled metalcore. This is a very different and crazy mix of influences that in a peculiar way works OK as a final product.
Modern hardcore punk bands from Austria providing six tracks each on a pretty coherent split. Politically charged lyrics for the most part, with CALORIS IMPACT being a little more adventurous in throwing curveballs between the thrashing and breakdown, while the SNUB is a little more straightforward, grabbing influences from grind and crust. Standout to me is CALORIS IMPACT’s vocalist Rebeca, who could strip the paint off the wall with her acerbic screams. These bands would fit well with contemporary HC like GEL or TORSO, but do enough to show personality here. A fine enough release with not much to complain about but nothing to fawn over, either.
