Hardcore bands are the easiest things to hype in music right now. You can take any band out there and tell your friend it is the heaviest thing he has ever heard, only to find a new band the next week that owns that title, and so on and so forth. Throwdown are exactly one of those bands. This So-Cal straight-edge moshcore group spends their entire lives brutalizing anyone that stands in their way, and they do it with a growing efficiency with each new album.
Their new album Vendetta is chalk full of heartfelt, growling lyrics over some absurdly infectious guitar hooks. In their previous albums, Throwdown wasn't necessarily trying to escape mediocrity, but their music was just too simplistic. This time around, they have taken a bit more of a metal approach, but not enough of one to make this anything but hardcore. The one thing that stand out are the lyrics, which although filled with anger and rage, aren't just angsty because that is the cool thing to do. There is a conviction here and it somehow emerges through the constant growling and screaming. There is a definite straight-edge tinge here, but Throwdown, unlike many other straight-edge groups, still makes it accessible by avoiding an overt preaching tone to the album. Even someone like me who consumes alcohol at any and every given moment can still relate to these lyrics.
Granted, if you are also like me, then you don't exactly listen to this genre of music for the lyrics, but more for the sheer adrenaline rush that comes from the constant blasts of explosive noise. Vendetta incorporates plenty more catchy guitar hooks this time around that still retain a heavy moshcore sound. The album is chalk full of delicious power riffs that make you want to gorilla punch the world into oblivion. There is no musical ingenuity here, but there doesn't need to be.
Throwdown isn't trying to be much more than a looming presence in the hardcore world. Vendetta won't come remotely close to changing the state of the scene, but it will give the foundation another boost for hardcore to stand on.