I remember Youthviolence playing a set in a dank basement last year that befit their name incredibly well. They were doing super thrashy hardcore that put both the "power" and "violence" in "power-violence," overwhelmingly loud, noisy and nihilistic-sounding. It was cool.

On their well-recorded debut 7" (another stellar job by Phil Douglas), the band is playing considerably less speedy, but they're just as unbridled and intense, even if the tempo's slowed down. Their two original songs are fleshed out and well-structured (the middle song being an effective, forward-speed take on Faith's "Face to Face"). Otherwise, they come off like the kid brother of Infest and Mind Eraser, with 'Erich Ven Kempen''s vocals a throaty and meaty roar above pummeling, lumbering `80s hardcore. With "Kafir," "Hope you break your neck / Hope you fall on your face" reads pretty goofy on paper (or in this case, on your monitor), but the band sound serious as hell about it on record. The thrash feel is turned up a bit for "Lesson 13," but it's much more dynamic than the typical minute-long drill you'd expect, with a transition a minute and a half in making way for an unraveling fit of rage and plenty of feedback to wrap it up.

Definitely not the typical template of LIHC but quite good stuff nonetheless.

STREAM
Lesson 13