Troublemaker

The Sons of No One [7 inch] (2009)

Brian Shultz

The bastards of young? Troublemaker follow their pretty excellent demo/7" with The Sons of No One, another bout of angry, spiteful hardcore that weans off the thrashy powerviolence thing a little bit and delves more into a grueling, pissed moderate tempo.

Of course, when opener "Fissure" kicks off, the listener's blessed with that familiar beat before a break into maybe the best moment on the 7", where their lead vocalist exhibits some of his signature misanthropy in dynamic form ("'I will always be everything that you fucking hate. / I will never, ever learn from any of my past mistakes.'"). But a few songs later, "Enabler" finds a more crooked, sort-of droning path to traverse. Stomping stop-starts in the short "Splitting Hairs" make their mark well, with a world-weary, melancholic lyrical punctuality that reminds me of the writings of Dominic Mallory (RIP) of former labelmates Last Lights, while there's a subtle, sinister atmosphere that pervades the close of the last one, "Beating a Dead Workhorse.", as the singer repeats "'A lack of patience / from a lack of respect."

While this 7" just about holds my interest for its whole duration, it doesn't have too many moments that jump out often, at least as much as the demo did. Still, a real solid effort here.

STREAM
Something Wrong?
Drone