Play along with me for a moment and put yourself aboard Spaceball One. You’re in pursuit of Lone Starr and the Eagle 5 and your colonel has just reluctantly launched the ship into “ludicrous speed.” You begin to lose physical and mental control, as there’s really no way to prepare your body for this type of shock. Your brain starts to melt, oozing into your feet. And without any attempt of gradually slowing down, the ship comes to a sudden stop. You’re left feeling discombobulated, in a state of absolute confusion.
Strangely, and just completely randomly, this scene is what comes to mind when listening to Adrenalized. Their breed of melodic hardcore coming out of Spain creates that similar sense of momentarily uncertainty of what’s happening, almost draining to the listener. The blazing tempo creates this vehicle of force driven by over-complicated and technical riffs. Their style thrusts your listening experience into state of no control, trying to grapple it all back in with each change and directional shift. It’s like there’s absolutely no letting up, and when it finally does stop, you’re left feeling just like Dark Helmet after a nose dive into the side of the ship.
Their latest LP, Operation Exodus, brings the power and explodes out of the gates with “Operation Exodus II”, just like any record in this genre should. It’s heavy with riffs akin to Chris Hannah’s style, with an over-the-top solo that reels the chorus back in to conclusion. But with what the song brings in playing aggression, it’s the second half hook of “Time has come and now all heroes die alone,” that keeps this song in rotation.
This is where Adrenalized’s true lasting power lies, not sticking to the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. Their heavy hitters are the result of building the song around the hook, no matter where in the song it’s placed. “The Story to Believe” is the clear-cut blueprint of this, with the most memorable elements coming in the latter part of the track. “The Mask” continues this trend of songwriting, with the true engine coming from the back end.
There are sure-fire rippers here, but the album as a whole is hard to digest and quite uncontrollable. We know these guys are insanely talented in how they handle their instruments, but Operation Exodus gets to a point where it’s just too much. This boasting often gives way to lack of lyrical and vocal catchiness. Take a track like “Set It on Fire.” It’s got the chord shifting and the sheer fire power, but it’s like they wrote it while performing a keyword clustering of Pennywise lyrics. It’s got “society,” it’s got “unity” and the obvious “not giving a fuck.”
It’s like A Wilhelm Scream whipped out their Schwartz, and Adrenalized is stuck in desperately trying to make theirs bigger. Fans of the classic Fat sound and Groezrock staples will dig Operation Exodus, but may only find themselves going back to a few select tracks. It’s fast, ferocious and intricate, but just difficult at times to wrangle in.