The latest self-titled, self-released effort from Trash Talk is billed as their debut full-length, but at just 14 minutes for its 12 tracks I can't help but consider it another absolutely blistering EP. Regardless, the simple black and white aesthetics of the cover art mirror a slight shift in sound towards the more powerviolence-sounding elements of their prior work, resulting in their finest tracks to date, which should absolutely appeal to fans of classic acts like No Comment and Crossed Out. Recorded by Steve Albini in two days, this is a thicker, dirtier, more sinister affair, with a warmer and more natural mix that highlights texture over speed. And the songwriting actually follows suit, easing up on the relentlessly fast tempos of most of the band's past efforts in favor of more churning rhythms and darker breathing room, complete with plodding, pulsing distorted bass runs—granted the tracks still average less than a minute each, with closer "Revelation" bumping up the total running time with its 4+ minutes of repetitious bashings and feedback. So, yeah, there's still a good amount of blasting speed and ferocity in place as well. I'm not sure what more to say, really. I liked the band's last two EP's, and this is even better, so I damn sure look forward to hearing more. Well done.
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Trash Talk (CD)
Trash Talk (LP)
Comments
after years of dull metalcore bands, things seem to look up again with bands like DIE YOUNG, CRUCIFIER, ROT IN HELL, and the always kick-ass TRASH TALK. glad about that!
9.10.2008 | By Andy
I like this fairly well and I didn’t care much for their first record.
The cover’s sorta cool but that whole upsidedown peace sign thing is getting played out. Racist organizations like to use that symbol so it’s weird punk bands are adopting it as of late. I guess they’re “reclaiming” it.
9.10.2008 | By Justin
Great record. Absolutely evil sounding bass. And that’s not an upside down peace symbol, it’s a RUNE.
9.10.2008 | By Fishskull
Overrated.
9.10.2008 | By Carl
what a great argumentation ;)
9.11.2008 | By Carlos
They should win the “most improved band” award for this new release.
Great lyrics as well. Post apocalyptic touches keep it from being overly generic hardcore re-tread.
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on here. It’s great to see you keeping a great pace with these reviews. Cheers.
9.11.2008 | By Zach
I’m glad they left deathwish and went with Albini. Great band.
9.12.2008 | By BillC
i never heard any of their earlier stuff, but i have been loving that ep. very few bands can pull of the sludge-to-blastbeat transition effectively and trash talk, when they’re on their game, were just killing it.
9.13.2008 | By andrew
This and the new Disfear have me all excited to listen to more hardcore. So raw, so energetic, so frothy. And so short!
9.15.2008 | By Etan
Fucking awful.
9.18.2008 | By James
i fucking love trash talks new shit!
its fucking brutal not like their other albums
but still fucking amazing
11.3.2008 | By cole