{"id":77801,"date":"2019-04-09T15:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=77801"},"modified":"2023-04-07T14:23:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T13:23:28","slug":"review-american-war-machine-unholy-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-american-war-machine-unholy-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: American War Machine \u2013 Unholy War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-77802\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/AWM-Cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\">Bridge 9 Records has a reputation for being home to some of the best names in hardcore punk and <strong>American War Machine<\/strong> fit right in. Its members are drawn from a host of the scene\u2019s most influential bands, including Slapshot and Agnostic Front, all of whom pioneered and helped define hardcore in the 1980s. So it\u2019s no surprise that with their debut album \u2018<em>Unholy War<\/em>\u2019 you\u2019re getting a big solid slab of good old-fashioned hardcore.<\/p>\n<p>With the \u2018<em>Prey Drive<\/em>\u2019 EP under their belt, the Boston-based super-group converged at the Colosseum in New Bedford to record the album, Trevor Vaughan handling production to make it sound as tight and bracing as you\u2019d expect. The entire twenty-eight minute runtime is an absolute stampede of d-beat drums and Craig Silverman\u2019s guitar. You\u2019d describe his playing as crossover-thrash, which he helped pioneer, and thrash he does, adding little flourishes to songs like \u2018<em>Hammer Down<\/em>\u2019 to keep things varied.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s the short \u2018<em>Hurling Cataclysm<\/em>\u2019, or the violent snarls of \u2018<em>Bullet In The Head<\/em>\u2019, vocally everything is presented as a hardcore yell. You do get a counterpoint to vary the structure, but it\u2019s pretty much straight down the line.\u00a0No poetry, no cleans, no nonsense. Lyrically, the political overtones hit hard, and given the band name you can guess what they\u2019re angry about. Subtlety isn\u2019t their strength, raw power is.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"American War Machine - &quot;Calcified Eye&quot; Official Music Video\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MzSwcj8orwk?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Unrelenting and unsurprising from start to finish, <strong>AWM<\/strong> present a well-trodden sound you\u2019ve heard before, probably from the members\u2019 original bands, but when the songs are this solid you can\u2019t complain. Highlights include the short and vicious \u2018<em>Farther To Fall<\/em>\u2019 and the unbeatable power of aggressive first single, \u2018<em>Calcified Eye<\/em>\u2019,  rerecorded here, much like the three songs from their debut EP, to sound even meatier.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018<em>Unholy War<\/em>\u2019 doesn\u2019t overstay its welcome, it knows what it is.\u00a0While they offer nothing fresh, <strong>American War Machine<\/strong> revel in their collective strength, offering uncompromising hardcore punk, which is exactly what you get.<\/p>\n<p>3.5\/5<\/p>\n<p>\u2018<em>Unholy War<\/em>\u2019 by <strong>American War Machine<\/strong> is released on 12th April on <strong>Bridge 9 Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>American War Machine<\/strong> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/americanwarmachineofficial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> |\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/bridge9.bandcamp.com\/album\/unholy-war\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Ian Kenworthy (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhisperingSand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@WhisperingSand<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American War Machine revel in their collective strength, offering uncompromising hardcore punk, which is exactly what you get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":77802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[16817,12396,15621,2500,16818],"class_list":["post-77801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-american-war-machine","tag-bridge-9-records","tag-ian-kenworthy","tag-review","tag-unholy-war"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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