No Warning

Suffer, Survive (2004)

moneenerd

I don't know if this was released before or after the arrogant dudes in No Warning started hanging out with fellow Canadians Sum 41 or their newfound mentors in Linkin Park, but with the release of Suffer, Survive, it's clearly evident that both bands have had a serious influence on them, and, unless you've been living under a rock for the past 10 years, it's not considered a good thing.

If you're familiar with No Warning, particularly the Ill Blood era, you'll probably think I'm lying when I say that when I picked it up this very afternoon, and put it in my nü-metal-head friend's car stereo, she looked at me with a big smile on her face and asked me if this was the new Linkin Park album. It's THAT similar…no fucking exaggerating. I knew it wasn't going to work out between me and Suffer, Survive when she said that to me, and with every listen I graced this pile of rubbish with after that, I can only picture Chester Bennington singing this trash in front of some floor-punching teenagers wearing bandanas on their faces.

Wait… I take that back. No one with a decent taste for hardcore… no, rock music, for that matter, would enjoy dancing to this.

And it's all a major bummer, because I really enjoyed the Ill Blood album, particularly the very moshable songs "Short Fuse" and "Over My Shoulder," but what No Warning has done on this new record is simply inexcusable. Suffer, Survive is not only the epitome of a punk act "selling out," but is also the best evidence of the theft of hardcore by the MTV Headbanger's Ball scene. No chants. No mosh parts. No technical instrumentation whatsoever. It's exactly what my first paragraph depicts it as: a mix of the pop-punkiness and mindless strumming of Sum 41, the all-around vocal and writing techniques and chugga-chugga guitar work of Linkin Park, with a wee glimmer of the hardcore band No Warning used to be, having some pretty rad fast metal riffs and hooks here and there, but even then, still too far and few between.

The only song worth even listening to is the opening track, "Dirtier Than The Next," which is nothing but a fucking tease for us kids thiking this to be a decent major-label hardcore release for a change. It psyches you out for what you have a feeling is going to be a heavy hardcore LP, but they pretty much spit and laugh in your face for the remaining 9 tracks. Remember Eighteen Visions' Obsession album? Remember how disappointed the Until The Ink Runs Out fans were? Now, multiply that by five. Have you thrown up yet?

Save your money and buy Paint It Black's Paradise release that just came out and is blowing us true hardcore punk fans away, not rubbish like Suffer, Survive that's pushing us away.