Atrocity Solution

Tomorrows Too Late (2010)

Joe Pelone

Hailing from the mighty state of Wisconsin, punk/ska act Atrocity Solution somehow manages to build a crust punk bridge between Choking Victim and Leftover Crack. I know that's a big variety of music, but bear with me. The group's latest, a seven-track EP entitled Tomorrow's Too Late, keeps a crack rock steady beat throughout.

"The Protest Song" lives up to its title, although lyrically it tends to come off like the ramblings of a crazy homeless person. Heck, they don't even bothering using apostrophes. These guys don't conform to your grammatical rules, man. Still, the music rips. "Change the Channel" adds in more ska. The rest of the EP oscillates between those two styles.

Not to belabor the point, but these guys really, really sound like Leftover Crack. The vocals alternate from snotty spit-takes to demonic, throaty screams. The guitars are either faux-metal crunchy or upstroking ska. The only thing missing is LC's sense of humor, which went a long way towards turning Mediocre Generica into a classic. Give me a joke song about Satanism. Hell, even songs like "Born to Die" had a tongue-in-cheek quality to them that made them better. Atrocity Solution's biggest problem isn't plagiarism--it's that they're trying so hard to cultivate a certain sound that they don't seem to be having any fun with it. Somebody buy these kids a Star Fucking Hipsters record.