SHUT YOU OUT

Hands down, THE record of the year is now in my paws. I've blogged a number of times about Liverpool's Violent Reaction over the last few weeks for various reasons so maybe regular readers know how excited I am about this? This is the bands s/t debut EP pressed by Static Shock Records and Quality Control. This record is part of the (somewhat limited) first press that is pretty close to being sold out (if it's not already). I think I heard that a second press would be happening soon. Straight up, driving, ugly hardcore from The North that takes pretty blatant cues from many of USHC's founding forefathers. Tip of the cap to the vast majority of the mid west across to the upper east coast with a bit of an Oi! sound thrown in too here and there. Now last year (or maybe very early this year?) I posted about the bands demo. I was really into that tape, but this just casts a massive shadow over that recording, and everything else released this year for that matter. As I've mentioned before, at the time of writing and recording this EP, VxR was the work of one bloke, Mr Pimlott handling all duties. As I type this though, I'm pretty sure while still being his baby, he's got a lot of help in various English punk chaps. Everything about this EP is perfect; every song is a banger, really catchy stuff with the perfect balance of fast and slow and slam, Tom sounds like an animal and the recording is spot on. I really can't speak more highly about this thing. I've been listening to the digital version non stop for weeks on end now, and I know I'll be spinning this platter for many more weeks to come. Essential hardcore.