2006-03-03
Angel Crew represent European street hardcore, a mix of the oldschool and some hard rock/stoner, dripping of hate – resulting with the creation of something brutal, something that works.
“Life Sentence” opens this album, reminding me somehow of old Slayer (probably due to the vocals, which are close to Tom Araya’s ones here and there), the drum sound is great, very well fitting.
Having two vocalists certainly allows diversity whenever wanted, like a rugged stoner/hard rock voice changing to a typical hardcore shout (along with fitting instrument parts) in “Break Through” or “Bring down the world” and even the short “Cross the line”.
The variation continues in “Chapter of violence”, starting off with a choked guitar part, followed by a fully distorted one doing the same part (this turns to the main riff for this song), the clean vocals come in the chorus to escort the shouted ones, this combination is really a great hook.
Two highlights are “Carry on the war”, that builds gradually to a moshing/ headbanging treat (with a wicked guitar solo), and “Another King down” where it seems like the vocalists are having a duet while the instrument deliver a full scale attack.
Some of that oldschool hardcore is found in “Spit it out” (not a Slipknot cover, god forbid, though it reminds me of them, maybe it’s psychological), as well as in the fast and furious “Dead end sin” and the even harder “Shut them down”.
“Shut the down” leads to the closing track, “Life of an angel”, which grows into a dark/industrial direction with help from a deep melancholic voice but quickly asserts its way back to hardcore; this song is a bizarre but surprisingly good combination, quite danceable, ending and closing the album with some feedback and a cute soft rock part that sounds like it is played on vinyl - This is what I call a good hardcore album.
Ofer Vayner
