The Smackdown

Calling The Spots (2005)

Erin_Jackson

Recipe for a the Smackdown song: take a short, hard, and heavy intro, add ear-piercing screaming, condense audio.

So, you say you're looking for something to listen to while attempting crazy tricks at the skate park or while you break stuff? Well, kid…you've come to the right place. Scream-happy the Smackdown's Calling The Spots features 13 of the dirtiest, nastiest screamcore tracks (possibly) ever made. The band's website describes the band as "the sort of band that comes out of nowhere and creeps into your town in some shitty beat-up van and up opens a show for some totally insincere hardcore band and ends up stealing the show and the band's girlfriends." I'd add that while they're at the show, they kick the audience's collective teeth out, wipe the blood and spit off their boots, and assemble a necklace. This is some serious fucking hardcore.

The title track ambles along a drawn-out introduction, then explodes with the same indecipherable vocals before returning to an extended instrumental section that continues for a solid three minutes. This last track seems to be added as an afterthought, especially because it has nothing to do with any of the other songs.

Still, despite the energy and believable anger spewed forth by Rob Hardy, this band is a one-trick pony. Beyond a first listen that is largely motivated by curiosity, the CD is "unlistenable," unless you're a glutton for punishment.