I randomly stumbled upon One Man Army's "Judge Not" and "Traitor Among Us" on YouTube yesterday when digging around for other obscure New Jersey hardcore treasures and nearly had my head explode. I recall reading about this short-lived and little-known outfit fronted by the mighty James "Stikman" Ismean from Fury of Five back in the MySpace days, but they broke up in the spring of 2006 and I had no idea that they ever recorded anything!
Hearing these two tracks, it's a damn shame the group didn't hang around long enough for a proper 7" or full-length, 'cause they basically sound like a slightly more metal-leaning Fury of Five—Ismean's inimitable vocals, thrashily chugging midpaced mosh breaks, pinch harmonics, etc. I mean, hot damn, do those gang backup vocals sound 100% dead on Fury style or what!?
It kills me to see great music relegated to overly-compressed YouTube streams, but, shit... I'll take it. I always say that anything is better than nothing, so I'm grateful for the chance to hear these rare gems at all!
