«
»
Reviews, Scraping Genius Off The Wheel

BLEEDER’S DIGEST: QUICKIE REVIEWS OF ARSON ANTHEM AND ENDER

 Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 at 3:00pm by

Arson Anthem, “Insecurity Notoriety”
I tried, man. Believe me. Given its membership, Arson Anthem should be one of my favorite bands. Yet the combined forces of Eyehategod’s Mike Williams, Hank III, Colin Yeo and Phil Anselmo can’t seem to salvage this intended tribute to crusty hardcore punk that plays more like a D-list D-beat disaster. Discharge and their Swedish ilk put out some awesome lo-fi, nasty records in their day, yet Insecurity Notoriety is a one-trick pony that has seen better days, paling in comparison to contemporary shitkickers like Disfear. By American hardcore standards, this is pretty dreadful. Specifically, this is the worst thing Anselmo has done — save for Christ Inversion. Arson Anthem should acknowledge the mediocrity of this vanity project and leave hardcore to the hardcore.

(1.5 out of 5 horns)

Ender, “This Is Revenge”
At long fucking last, a deathcore band comes along that sounds more like The Acacia Strain than Whitechapel! New Jersey’s Ender carry the weight of metal and hardcore on their young, rippling shoulders on their Eulogy Recordings debut. Guttural vocals and eye-gouging breakdowns are what these fellows do best, as demonstrated on brutal cuts like “Sculpting Fragments” and the Pantera-esque title track. Emmure frontman Frankie Palmeri makes a brief but effective cameo on “Panty Sniffer Does Porn”, showing support for his fellow Tri-Staters. Only eight tracks long, This Is Revenge feels more like a teaser than a proper debut, yet the talent behind these tunes somewhat makes up for that.

(3 out of 5 horns)

-GS

Tags: , ,
  • Kye

    I dig the hardcore direction of the site today, but is everyone else on vacation or something?

    • Kye

      Note to self: Scroll further down in the posts next time

  • blahblahblah

    1.5 out of 5 for the new AA? First Blood and Hoods are “hardcore”?? bahahahaha oh man…. this site is laughable at best.

    • Dirtman73

      Whatev. People around here seem to think Phil Anselmo is made of fucking gold. He’s only human and entitled to fuck up sometimes.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jake-Benecasa/1267291022 Jake Benecasa

      Honestly, I wouldn’t consider ANYTHING Phil Anselmo does to be hardcore. He might be a hardcore guy (he likes hardcore music), but nothing he has produced over the past 25 years is even remotely hardcore. If you listen to First Blood and Hoods, they take the late 80′s and early 90′s hardcore sound and morph it into something that stays true to its roots buts still sounds good and can be relevant today.

    • andrewdergrind

      blahblahblah I could not agree with you more.This record sounds like an actual “hardcore” record.Its like everyone forgot that hardcore used to be american punk.People tag “core” on to fucking everything “suckmydickcore” mosh to that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jake-Benecasa/1267291022 Jake Benecasa

    See, to me, these guys are just mediocre. I think The Acacia Strain is a hell of a lot better than Ender (then again, TAS is my #1 favorite band all time anyway, so…). I honestly do not mind the fact that it’s another NorEastern deathcore band, but what fuels my massive dislike for these guys is the fact that they STOLE a t-shirt design from tech-death experts Conducting From The Grave. Both shirts have the band logo on the front, and on the back (almost identically) there is an ambulance and it says “Ruin someone’s fucking day” on both shirts.

    Here:
    CFTG- http://www.thirddegreemerch.com/band_store_detail.php?id=451&band_key=42

    Ender- http://www.allinmerch.com/product/ENDAMB.html

    I think it’s absolute bullshit that a band that is actually pretty good, like ender is, has to go and steal shirt designs.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Austin-Sharktopus-Nutter/1418565949 Austin Sharktopus Nutter

      Wow, that’s a pretty obvious one. I hope it’s just a coincidence but I doubt it.

      • njdevils

        It is a coincidence. I happen to know the band and they didn’t think the phrase was used by any other band. They use the phrase in their live show at times. Thats why they decided to use it. Their new merch is sick though!

    • Phillip J Shitstack

      I hate the fact that almost all of Ender’s merch has the band name all over it. A great example is the Ambulance shirt that you mentioned. It said ender on the front and back of the shirt. WTF IS UP WITH THAT. It’s not even tasteful on the back, it just looks retarded. And if you’ve been following that band at all you know that they’ve played all of the songs on the EP minus DelaWho, and Fakes and Thieves for over a year. Their live show is great but you hear the same songs over and over again since the start with the original vocalist. It’s time for some new tunes guys.

      • Buddy

        You hate the fact the band puts their own name on their own merchandise? Are you retarded or something?

    • njdevils

      It was a complete freak coincidence. The bands don’t even sound anything alike. Their new merch designs are really sweet though!

      • Jack

        njdevils = casey from ender. used to be his twitter name.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jake-Benecasa/1267291022 Jake Benecasa

          Wow, if njdevils really is casey, then you’d think he wouldn’t try to hide behind his screen name. Although i shoulda known it was him from the constant talk about the “sick new Ender merch…”

          Truth be told, if he doesn’t have the balls to come out and say “Hey, it’s Casey, that was an accident and we honestly didn’t steal anything” then I lost what little respect I barely had for this band….

          They steal merch designs, and they sound like Emmure & Whitechapel fucked and had a retarded baby…how unoriginal can this band get?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jake-Blochinger/516298436 Jake Blochinger

    I’ve played a few shows with these guys in the past. They’re okay, they draw a good crowd though, and they play a tight set every time. However, their music is very stock and simple…they’re a direct combination of Emmure and Whitechapel but without the moves.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jake-Benecasa/1267291022 Jake Benecasa

    I could see a coincidence in the 2 shirts if they both had an ambulance on them, or caution tape, but they even say the same fucking thing! And CFTG had their shirt out in 08 when their debut came out. The bottom line is Ender (or whoever designs their merch) ripped off CFTG. And using the phrase during a live setting is totally different than putting it on a shirt. I messaged CFTG about this like a year ago and they were pretty pissed about it, but said that there really wasn’t anything they could do. It just pisses me off that this band cant get an original idea…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Danny-LaVarco/824115720 Danny LaVarco

    Yo guys, i dont know if that is Casey or not, i highly doubt anyone in my band would do that on a message board, you cant base your information because it used to be his twitter name.

    But i can comment on the CFTG/Ender Shirt design. It was totally an accident. The shirt design idea wasnt ours, it was the designers idea, and we didnt even know about CFTG’s shirt until somebody messaged our myspace about it and brought it to our attention. Since then we have agreed to NOT reprint/restock those shirts. It is being taken down off of our allinmerch store sometime this week too. We felt bad after it was pointed out to us also. Sorry guys!

    And @Phillup, agreed with you, new songs are on deck soon!

    • John

      Wham bam. Takin’ care of business.