Forwards
ever, backwards never. In a perfect world, those four words would tell
you everything you need to know about Sacramento thrash-punk juggernautTrash Talk.
But in a perfect world, these four furious scions of guitar-wrought
destruction wouldn’t exist. Lee, Garrett, Spencer and Sam are fueled by
our ugly, and they give it back in spades. TheTrash Talklive
grind is a notorious thing — an anarchic, energetic and often painful
paean to otherwise oppressed angst that’s unsurprisingly found footing
all over the world, from the U.S. to Europe, to Australia and Japan. And
in between that nearly ceaseless touring, the band’s matched its
on-the-road fervor with an impressive collection of recorded brutality,
from 2009?s “East of Eden” single featuring vocals from hardcore icon
Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Off!), to last year’s ragged
full-length masterpiece Eyes & Nines, to their recent split 7-inch
with Wavves. On this brand new 7-inch EP forTrue Panther Sounds,Trash Talkcontinue to bodily propel their sound down the gnarled, grime-swathed path they’ve hewn for themselves. The aptly named opener“Awake”careens through the gate in a hail of shred.“Slander”squeals,
stacks, smashes and releases in one minute flat, while“Blind Evolution”seems epic at over two, progressing from rapid thrash to a grungy, halftime sludge. Then, in comes“Burn Alive,”tailor-made
to elicit air punches (be aware of your surroundings when you drop the
needle), with its screeched out anti-wisdom: “The good die young, but
the great survive.” Finally,“Gimme Shelter”brings
things to a punishing, pummeling close and it all happens so quickly,
so feverishly that the listener’s left beaten, bruised and ears bleeding
with no real sense of what just happened. Which is, of course, howTrash Talklikes it. Forwards ever, backwards never.
May 24, 2013