Guitars, Drums, Tones, and Saxophones

Career Suicide - Attempted Suicide

When you think of hardcore punk- real, brutal hardcore- what cities come to mind? Washington D.C., of course, L.A., New York City, maybe Boston. These cities all had some pretty substantial hardcore scenes back in the ’80s. Not that there weren’t others, but they had their own sounds, and you can’t talk about hardcore without naming various bands from those cities.

Note that Toronto is not on that short list of hardcore cities. This is unfortunate, because some of the best hardcore out there is coming from our northern neighbors. Fucked Up is putting out solid records, and the Brutal Knights are certainly rocking it hard. And then there’s Career Suicide.

This album is just over twenty minutes long. And once it kicks into gear on “Play the Part,” it is nothing short of blistering the entire way through. The “loud fast rules” style of hardcore is near and dear to this Canadian quartet, and they play with a speed and intensity that would make the Bad Brains or Minor Threat proud.

The band, like the best hardcore bands, is outraged. Mostly at the world around them. Vocalist Martin Farkas has a scream that is well-suited to the music; his voice is clear and melodic, while being rough and loud enough to fit the music. His lyrics are less concerned with being memorable shout-along anthems than pointing out issues in the modern world, on a large scale.

The typical point at which most hardcore bands, particularly ones that ascribe strictly to the early ’80s sound, fail is the songs will tend to all sound the same, if not musically then lyrically. Musically, the band is strong here; while the songs are, yes, all loud and extremely fast, there’s enough musical variation here to keep the 13 songs from all sounding like a light-speed blur of guitars and drums. The vocals, on the other hand, do tend to blur into one another, especially if you don’t have a lyrics sheet handy.

All in all, Career Suicide are another promising hardcore band, playing some inspired, energetic music in the “classic” style. If you’re into bands like SSD, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, etc., Career Suicide will not disappoint.

Tags: career suicide