TERROR - "THE WALLS WILL FALL" (2017) & "THE 25th HOUR" (2015)

TERROR - "THE WALLS WILL FALL"
(Running time: 9:16 minutes; 5 Songs)
("P N E"; CD; 2017):

Hey guys, and here we are again, next post, next record-review up here and again this time, like announced and promised before, on a (so far I know also just pretty recently released) 2017 release. And this 2017 release is the current TERROR CD (or better Mini-CD/CD-EP) named "THE WALLS WILL FALL" released via the to me so far pretty unknown record-label "P N E". But after this one is a very short running CD and after I haven't done a record-revierw on TERROR's so far last full-length-album "THE 25th HOUR" from 2015 I decided to give you this one as well with this post, so this one here and now will be double-pack containing record-reviews post on "THE WALLS WILL FALL" followed by the one on "THE 25th HOUR"; and okay, so here we go: I wasn't that much a fan of "THE 25th HOUR" and still I am not really a fan of this particular TERROR-album, but after I will deliver the review on it right after this one I won't talk about it too much here and now (at least I'll try to...) and so just let me say that without being a fan of its precursor album-release I was in doubt with what TERROR will come up on this Mini-CD. And with what do they come up, you're asking now? Well, with a step foward again, with a big step again into a stronger and better direction. It's just all more intense and grapping and more honest and heartfelt harsh and forward slashing than before and even TERROR surely didn't change their formula they still do it really better than before, finally again better, and within their (let's be honest) pretty-close restrictive limitations of their style and sound they convince with truckloads of heavy and intense riffs and arrangements and with far more energy and dynamics than on their precursor-album, so that they wipe the "staleness" and "lameness" finally again away from their songs, "just" because the levels of intensity and energy are far more higher than before and such a thundering and hammering yet anthemic killer-song like the title track "THE WALLS WILL FALL" I missed completly on "THE 25th HOUR", as well as such a mid-paced intense and grapping bombardement of a song like the mighty "NO LOVE LOST". It's all more fresh and alive/lively than before. I mean it's a TERROR release and so you should know what to get, but it's all done better, fresher, and more heartfelt with more passion (so it feels to me) than the last time around. So expect crushing L.A. Hardcore the TERROR style, deeply rooted in the greatness of New York Hardcore, enriched with Old School Thrash Metal marks especially in the guitar departments and this time also maybe a few more CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER and old school SUICIDAL TENDENCIES influences here and there in it, and expect it all to be harsh and angry as fuck and filled with crushing guitars, sawing lead vocals, strong rhythm work, wide gang back ups, and a lot of anthemic as well as just sheer pissed off raging parts. The songwriting is better at all points and more true raging Hardcore without too much foreseeable Karate-Kids-gonna-Dance-Breakdown-parts, and it also feels quite a bit more "punky" to me and that's something I always cheer up to. Beside the four new tracks we also get a pretty decent cover of MADBALL's "STEP TO YOU". My personal favorites are the above mentioned "THE WALLS WILL FALL" and "NO LOVE LOST" but also "BALANCE THE ODDS" and "KILL 'EM OFF" are very strong songs. We get the typical TERROR lyrics on top of it, love them or hate them but I still like them, a pretty cool old school styled artwork, and a heavy but yet dirty and earthy production sound that fits perfectly to TERROR. Yes, that's it, a damn good new Mini-CD we have here that I can calmly recommend to you, and now let us wait if TERROR will be able to keep this positive tendency up and going strong on their new full length album when-ever this will come out. Hardcore!!! Fist!!!

(8 of 10 Points)

TERROR - "NO LOVE LOST" (2017, "THE WALLS WILL FALL")

TERROR - "THE 25th HOUR"

(Running time: 22:45 minutes; 14 Songs)

("Century Media Records Ltd."; CD; 2015):

Okay folks, on we go, here's the announced/promised record-review on TERROR's so far last and so still current full-length-album titled the "THE 25th HOUR", released in 2015 via the german record-label "CENTURY MEDIA RECORDS LTD.", and it's the precursor-album of their new Mini-CD "THE WALLS WILL FALL" (the review on it you've read above/before). Like you perhaps already noticed I am not a fan of this one and it surely more or less failed to convince me, point and fact. The precursor-album of this one, "LIVE BY THE CODE" from 2013, was just such a mighty über-album to me that's it maybe fair to say that it was right from the get-go pretty hard and difficult for "THE 25th HOUR" to convince me but after I am sort of a TERROR fan and after they surely didn't start to play a different style of music on "THE 25th HOUR" this argument, on the other Hand, maybe just don't Count at all as an proper argument. Anyhow, even today two years after its release "THE 25th HOUR" is sort of maybe my least favorite TERROR record so far; and this by far. The songs just sound by far too much the same, nearly every single one of them is completly disposable and the songs mostly just ran through and then that was "THE 25th HOUR". It's stale, it's lame, it's boring. Thank the gods that this is/was still an TERROR album and so still and even on this one you find some strong riffs, grapping moments, and a handful of good songs so that in the end this TERROR-album is surely a dissapointing let-down in the TERROR discography, but not a complete ass-crap-album in the end, and it comes all in all in shortly as a solid album at the end of day, a solid album with a bunch of goodies and grapping momets on it and then that's it. Anyhow still far too less for a band like TERROR, at least in my book. My two biggest problems with "THE 25th HOUR" were and still are (and probably will always be) @ first the stereotypical and just too weak and foreseeable songwriting that also lacks in most parts nearly all intensity and energy, all dynamics and all passion that so far always made TERROR, so that even when you pretty much knew what would come next you were (always) still grapped, excited, and hooked off by what TERROR pulled off, no, but not this time. And then @ second it was and is the production-sound of "THE 25th HOUR" that's coming with a too metallic flavor for my taste, it sounds pretty much just like your ordinary up-to-date mall-Metal-album and especially the drumsound totally ticks me off. It sounds too sterile and too polished and too wanna-be-heavy at the end of day, and this really damages a lot (at least in my perception). Okay, beside all this "problematic-stuff-concerning-this-album" you or we got and still get the NYHC fueled LAHC that TERROR are known (and widely loved) for cultivated by old schoolish Thrash Metal marks in it, especially in the guitar work, and we get sawing and shredding guitars, harsh shouted vocals, widescreen gang back up chants, buzzing bass work, and heavy drumming, all good and fine and all typical TERROR ingredients are there but without the intensity and the passion and the grapping heartfelt and honest raging excitement that we all know from TERROR and, to be honest, that a TERROR record definitely needs to succesful resist becoming stale and lame, and "THE 25th HOUR" sadly in its majority failed to resist. The two by far best songs on "THE 25th HOUR" are the two final songs "BOTH OF YOU" and "DEEP ROOTED" that really shine and bring all what I miss about this album in its majority to the table and that also showcase some great and nicely surprising songwriting twists and turns that so weren't awaited  or expected after all the-ran-through-songs-before. Great songs. The title track "THE 25th HOUR" (anyhow more of an intro to the record than a real proper song), "BLINDED BY THE LIGHTS", "NO TIME FOR FOOLS", and "MIND AT WAR" are decent tracks that are beside or better after/behind the two already mentioned songs the best ones on "THE 25th HOUR" but surely would be more of average material on other TERROR releases so far. So, yes, let us praise the gods that TERROR turned the tides again on their new Mini-CD "THE WALLS WILL FALL" and let us wait and hope for a new full-length-album by TERROR to being released some day in the future. In all honesty I simply can't recommend "THE 25th HOUR" to you anyhow (at least if you're not a total TERROR fanboy/fangirl) even if especially or at least "BOTH OF YOU" and "DEEP ROOTED" were and still are really strong, great tracks worth to listen to worth to have in your collection, but the rest is mostly too much a double-edged-sword, if you get what I am trying to say. So don't buy it "blind", in case you didn't have or heard it already so far, better do a listening session before, hm, and when you see it today respectively these days for a low or mid price in your local record store, maybe then give it a fair try. A beautiful artwork and (mostly) strong lyrics we get on top of it all. Okay, that's it, an album that makes it across the finishing line shortly as a solid one (and this with writing this review after this album had two years time to somehow build up at least some momentum, and that tells - maybe- even more of a story of its own), and then that's it. I've said all what there was to say and now let us close this review, you know what's up. Hardcore!!! Fist!!!

(6 of 10 Points)

https://www.facebook.com/terrorhardcore (-the link to the facebook site of the band; anyhow you know how to go there if you are interested in it so I don't have to loose more words about it how to and what to do if blogger refuses it one more time again to post it as a direct link to the site)

TERROR - "THE 25th HOUR"/"NO TIME FOR FOOLS" (2015, "THE 25th HOUR")