Fight Amp - Constantly Off (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

Fight Amp

Constantly Off (2015)

Brutal Panda


If you're looking for noise, distortion and a bunch of pit-starters, then you're looking for Fight Amp. The only album I ever took in from them was 2008's Hungry For Nothing and I only caught wind of it late last year. It was pretty decent - aggressive and a stress reliever, which made sense the more and more I read reviews of their live shows. They've got this nice metal/hardcore chemistry down with greater emphasis placed on the latter this time around. Constantly Off is a great six-track EP for fans looking for a jumping-on point, but more so, it's a fine progression of a band that never sets out to reinvent the wheel but manages to keep the car accelerating. This effort is tighter, crisper in terms of production, and lyrically, more open and subsequently, powerful.

Fight Amp pride themselves on thunderous, guitar-driven songs and these tracks are no different. They really crank up the hardcore but add a neat little spin on things through their grimier notes and bass-lines that bear down heavily on the listener. Think of bands like Torche and Floor and then spot the comparisons on tracks like "Ex Everything" and "Leveling In A Dream". The distanced vocals add a nice touch to things and again, it's all about that more-hardcore-than-metal approach that makes Constantly Off stick a bit more for me.

But the biggest comparison I'd offer, and it's a very contemporary one that that, is to Single Mothers. I'm predicting Deathwish picks them up for their next full-length because Fight Amp give off a vibe that Single Mothers and Touche Amore fans would surely flock to. They fiddle around that hardcore-punk element on "You Don't Wanna Live Forever" to press home the fact that while they're keen on sticking to their old guns, they're all about batting outside the cages. If it's one thing that's a pretty safe bet is that Fight Amp are evolving quite well. They still feel like a work-in-progress on this album but they're very experienced so Constantly Off ends up like a band that's distilling something big to blow you away on their next full-length.