Taking getting on your nerves to another level, this is like The Ramones meeting Sick of it All in a dark alley… maybe lost somewhere in an old '50s black and white flick.

Ghoulish and ghastly… they're all of that, and maybe another foot or so left of center… but then, who isn't?

Subjectively, there's deep meaning contained within the songs-forget your average party and drinking songs-that comes after the show!

"Fall of the American" is the first track here and probably more so than the rest plays the role of lyrically significant leader in exploring the hypocritical American "way" and the unjustness of how the "melting pot" sufficiently burns away those from distant shores…

"Prey" is another rant against our imperfect system-the classless class system that apparently prides itself on excluding those "uglies" that comprise the outside world-no shirt, no shoes, no service… or something like that. But I still won't succumb to their rules!

Now "Days of the White Owl's" a real interesting tune. And face it, with a title like that, it had to be. Discussing in not so friendly terms, the impending decay of the human race… both morally it may be supposed, as well as physically-why are we destroying ourselves anyway?

Haven't we found the answer yet?

"Next in Line's" got a shimmering groove and like the rest, isn't short on speed or significance. Just another attention-grabbing, "Hey, look at me, I'm relevant but I won't play your game!"

And lookout-they're creeping up on you!

I never subscribed to this whole Southern California punk thing-maybe it works differently for these rap artists doing their West Coast/East Coast versions but these guys could easily come from Boston for all I'd know and wouldn't make a shit's worth of difference.

Know this, they're not about commercialism and don't look for 'em to hit on harmonies or pop pleasantness anytime soon. Cerebrally caustic and exhaustingly expressive… and wait, "Dead Man Walking!" Where've I heard this before?

I think they appeared on some comp with that tune sometime ago… and junkies everywhere, unite!

You've just gained a measure of revenge!

I'll be getting palpitations from this one for days on end-you wanna talk about striking a nerve…

Released by Revelation Records
P.O. Box 5232
Huntington Beach, CA
92615-5232
Phone (714) 842-7584
Fax (714) 375-4266

http://revelationrecords.com/

Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu]