Justice Unknown “This is What Rage is About” CD

I haven't posted about any criminally underrated gems lately, so here's one of the best absurdly rare and borderline unheard of albums in my collection. Justice Unknown was from Long Island and formed in 1995, breaking up but a few short years later after releasing their sole album, "This is What Rage is About", on None of the Above Records in 1996. I used to see ads for this record in damn near every zine known to man back in the day, but for some reason I never bothered to pick it up. I still know damn near nothing about this band, and pathetically enough most everything I've picked up was on their MySpace page, which I randomly stumbled across the other day (there's an unreleased track from 1997 up there too, if you're interested). All I can tell you is that the disc contains a mere eight tracks in about 22 minutes and seems to be heavily influenced by the crunchy grooves and in your face bitterness of Neglect, with a little Fury of Five tucked into the guitar work here and there, alongside loosely comparable traits of bands like Sheer Terror, Blood for Blood, etc. Expect gruff, burly vocals; loads of midpaced chugging with sparse bursts of faster, more traditional hardcore; and a great recording (especially considering the band's relatively unknown status) with a super crisp/crunchy guitar tone, thudding bass runs, and a balanced mix with just the right amount of rough-edged ruggedness. That's honestly about all I can give you on this one. Maybe some of the former band members will stumble across this post and offer some insight? It's an awesome album, so enjoy...

1. "Plugged In"
2. "Lock on My Rage"
3. "Sixth Precinct"
4. "No Brain No Pain"
5. "Lost Cause"
6. "Payment in Pain"
7. "Wasted Mind"
8. "Justice Unknown"

Hopefully no one will mind that I went ahead and posted the whole disc, because this thing is so fucking rare that I can't imagine anyone having an easy time finding a copy to purchase. I found one used on Amazon.com a few years ago and the damn thing came with a completely water-damaged booklet that won't even open (hence I've never seen the lyrics or anything else that might be inside the packaging), and I've never been able to find another copy since, so... good luck with that.

Edit: I took down the mp3's of the full-length based on the comment that Matt from Justice Unknown posted below. If you missed it: "We will be putting out a double CD in May with the album, our demos, and our comp tracks. The second CD will have like 12 new songs and some other shit that we did before we all went off to jail, the army, and the 9-to-5 bullshit. I promise the new stuff will be some of the most brutal music in a long time. For more info and updates go to the MySpace page for details."

I for one can't fuckin' wait to see/hear this thing!