Review Summary: Everything you know about hardcore on steroids.
So where can I start? Incendiary's 2nd full length Cost of Living (the title may have been taken from the Wisdom In Chains song) is just insane. It has everything in a straight up hardcore album (theres also a little thrash vibe thrown in the mix) but this time amplified to the maximum.
The Cost of Living's 10 tracks beat you in the face with crushing but adept riffing, well played breakdowns that add to the intensity of the music and are sure to create lots of windmills at shows, tasty groove sections and two-step parts that should keep your legs shifting, drumming stands out and doesn't just follow the rhythm of the guitar, and bass guitar has it's own shining moments and is actually audible.
Starting from "Zeitgeist" the opener to the record, treats the listener with an interesting intro that builds up to the chaos, "Living right under the crumbling empire, death holds the world in chains, dragged in the dirt behind him" shouts the vocalist with pure aggression and displaying some nice range from the start of Cost of Living to finish (theres also some neat backing vocals) as well as some more clever lyrics with the theme being... (drum roll please) the Cost Of Living, whether it's being held down by those who think everything in this world is going to be handed to them ("Deed Before Creed") the strive for power (The Power Process) or police brutality "YOU KILLED THE VERY PERSON THAT YOU SWORE TO PROTECT RRRAH!!!" ("Force of Neglect" after hearing the beginning sample to this song I can't help but to think of a quote at 3:10 in Jarrod Alonge's "Every Hardcore Vocalist" parody where he preaches "Police brutality is the number 1 cause of death worldwide"
Incendiary manages to make Cost of Living stand out among every other hardcore record, even eliminating the plagues of hardcore music, such as over simplicity, production in hardcore isn't always the way you would like it, and repetitive songs. The drumming isn't just your ordinary punk beats, there are no cheesy lyrics that a 4th grader could have wrote and you heard it all before, the band plays their instruments very well, exploring the guitar fret board, and making great use of dual guitars (which is uncommon for a down to the point hardcore record,) song structuring is on point, the songs feel complete, they aren't just a minute long because minute long songs are so HxC or the artist was running out of ideas, hell everything that Cost of Living contains is on point.
Incendiary is a band that knows what they are doing, creating a record where flaws are slim to none, and surely avoiding the sophomore slump title surpassing their debut "Crusade" (which I would also recommend.) I could even imagine a person who hates hardcore jamming this.
If you want to hear genius hardcore chaos (why wouldn't you?) go no further than to analyze the Cost Of Living (pun intended.)
This is my first review so give your feedback, constructive criticism, comments, and/or insults. This is also my second time writing this because Sputnik decided to take a crap on me so this one is a little rushed, and I may have left out a thing or two that was on the first time around.
