Compilations like this make a lot of sense. Surely, Incendiary fans waste no time hunting down copies of their main LPs, especially since band's considerable rise in fame after the release of Cost of Living (2013), but it's always more difficult to trace smaller-scale releases, or long-time sold out mini albums. So now, we get the chance to enjoy almost all the early material (debut EP, three split releases) in one neat package, freshly remastered by Will Putney (Fit for an Autopsy, End, Better Lovers), walking down memory lane and getting fists bloodier and bloodier as it goes.
Tracks are then also smartly placed going for the most part backwards in time, starting from the split with Xibalba in 2012, and arriving to the Amongst the Filth 7" inch, released originally in 2007. After the opener, "Not Your Prophet", which is actually an unreleased song from the sessions of the band's latest album, Change the Way You Think About Pain (yet another reason to get on this), listening to this material made me hit my head in annoyance of how I had forgotten how awesome early Incendiary were.
Who doesn't remember the band's rampant fury on the split with Suburban Scum, where both "Victory In Defeat" and "God's Country" are absolute demolishers. The whole debut EP is a favorite, especially the guitar's short sludge adventures on "Angels With Filthy Souls", while the breakdown on "Rome Is Burning" truly is unbelievable. What I had heard the least were the tracks from the split with Unrestrained, and I was unfamiliar with "Bond and Break" (another unreleased song..?).
The aggression is clear on the album as lyrics, voice and guitars seem to strike with an honest moral insistence, nicely showcasing the blazing early days of one of the best modern hardcore bands worldwide. Product of New York closes with an incredible cover of "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys, a track you didn't know you needed in a crushing hardcore version. What a bass sound on that one. The grand city across the water so often promises, and now also delivers. One listens, and one feels implicated. These streets are the veins of Incendiary.
Release: March 23rd, 2026 | Closed Casket Activities
Rating: 4 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment