Legs Up / My War

Here you will find 12 hardcore songs in 14 minutes by two different bands. Legs Up, from Long Island, is hardcore in the early 80's sense, and Richmond, Virginia’s My War is more on the metallic side and more political lyrically, but could fit into the 80's style as well.

Now that we’ve gotten that general info out of the way, let me just say that I don’t like this. At all. It’s just not my thing. I tried to give this a fair shake, but I just can’t make myself like it; in fact, I find it hard not to laugh at it. The shortness of the songs is even funny, averaging a minute each - you look over at your player thinking “is this a new song? That was so short and this one sounds identical!” The lengths don’t allow any room for development, and while yes, it is hardcore we’re talking about, songwriting is still important.

Legs Up’s singer has a good scream and the band is tolerable, plus they admit in their website’s bio that they cultivated their sound “from an admitted lack of talent and songwriting capabilities.” At least they’re honest.

I laughed even harder when My War came on. A slower, more metal riff started, but then they picked up the speed and then: “Arrrrrrg!” They have lyrics in the book, but all I hear are varying lengths of “Arrg” such as “Arrrrrrrrrrrg!”, “Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg!” or even the brilliant “Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg!” Damn, this shit’s funny. Oh wait, it’s not supposed to be? There’s supposed to be a message? Well, I can’t hear it. Mission not accomplished. I will not even bother to refer to any of the songs on this split, they all sound to similar to me.

Give me a little credit here hardcore people, before you start hatin’ on me. Even though it is not my favorite of subgenres of punk, I still own classic hardcore albums by Bad Brains, Minor Threat and Black Flag (from whom My War took their name of course) as well as others because I know they are classic and essential in punk’s history. Plus, they do make a good listen when I’m in the mood for it. This split is not a classic and never will be, and it is not essential in the history of punk, as both bands are taking several steps back and adding not much of their own to the style. If you want rehashed stuff, go for it and get this split. If you’ve got pent up rage or excess testosterone oozing from every pore, you may also like this. These guys sounds like they’re having fun and they got the extra energy I guess, so keep doin’ what you’re doin’ boys, but I won’t be tuning in.

[Here is where I remind our readers that being a staff reviewer, I was sent this to review. Please don’t post “Why would you review this if you hate it?” or anything similar. Go find an MP3 and form an opinion for yourself. Better yet, if you’re one of their street team people or something, write your own second review. I’m done with this.]