Everything about Crackin except their actual music is hilariously awful -- from the vague creatures making up their 99 cent bin artwork to their gramatically incorrect band name. There isn't even a [edit: numbered and clear] track listing anywhere to be found on the actual CD or liner notes themselves. You'd probably stay far away if no one told you that their debut full-length, So Much For..., is actually a pretty competent and economical slab of hardcore tunes.

Off the bat, Crackin don't really sound like one particular band, but that could be a good thing. Opener "Close to Blame" is a screamy mid-tempo trek laced with careful tempo changes and gang-vocal shouts, a surprisingly well-constructed, mean affair you wouldn't expect to hear from a band with such sad-looking blobs on the front cover. "Bite Your Lip" has a bit of catchiness to it slapped in the middle of all the rage. A mosh part in "Fuck Wisdom" lasts all of five seconds (thankfully), while "Dead Dreams" / "The Composition of Life" has an ambitiously clean transition. A moment of restraint in "Built to Hate" makes you wonder why they don't try it more often.

There's a simultaneous simplicity and complexity that gives Crackin the edge above any local whoever playing rental halls. They claim late `80s youth crew influences, but they're a little heavier and sorta more modern-sounding. If you really, really need a comparison, I guess I could say that So Much For... has a bit of a less thrashy Outbreak sense to it. In any event, Crackin definitely have something going here; don't let their exterior fool you.

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Bite Your Lip
God's Rejection