The debut 7" from Worcester, MA's Last Lights is a very promising slab of fast, Mass-styled hardcore straight out of the playbook drafted by Suicide File, Panic and American Nightmare's Background Music.

Last Lights is pretty much a 10-or-so-minute release of unrelenting intensity. Remember how Background Music blew you away with how straightforward and aggressive the band was, yet how good the songs were? Yeah, it's sort of like that, though Last Lights haven't quite attained that level of songwriting. Then again, has anyone since? Well, yeah. But not many.

The AN cues are ever-present on "Everybody's Working for the Weak End," while its slightly more original followup, "U.S. Out of New England," is spit forth in a brief blast. The flipside rages well enough too, with wailing guitar solos on "The Dream Homes of Insomniacs," a near-literal middle finger to the dreams of suburban middle class inhabitants.

Last Lights, keep at it. They aren't writing the most insanely brilliant songs quite yet, but it's pretty blistering and surprisingly varied in the vocal department.

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Last Lights 7"