Review Summary: Short and powerful.
Being unfamiliar with Blacklisted, I decided to give their latest LP a spin as I was hearing many good things about the band. It turned out to be a wise move. The first peculiarity I found was the album's length, spanning a measly 19 minutes - with eight tracks shorter than two minutes. Ironically enough, this encouraged me even further to listen to the album as I like compact, to the point music. The album is an explosion of aggression, passion and dexterous musicianship. Frontman George Hirsch keeps his messages short and concise. Whereas the album is lacking in length, its replayability is invaluable.
The album starts off with Stations, 25 seconds of low pitched, distorted guitar blaring - almost creating a false sense of security. The intro is abruptly ended with one bang, and we're off. An explosion of aggression and frantic speed with the vocalist shouting, "Peace is just a warm gun away, it's deeper than where there's a will there's a way." Welcome to Blacklisted. Soon the fast passage comes to a halt and a slower passage emerges, don't relax yet, after a few seconds, you're hit in the face again with a hard groove section featuring excellent guitar work.
The second track is similarly structured. A swit start, followed by a heavy breakdown, a slower passage and a groove to finish the song. The ample tempo changes is refreshing and keeps the listener apprehensive, in a good way. As well as the slower passages were implemented in the first two songs, they feel dragged out or simply tedious in others, most notably Circuit Breaker, the longest track on the album at 4:13. Circuit Breaker starts off ferociously, fast guitar work intertwining with swift drumming to create a heavy passage, after the heavy passage it's a slow section, the latter just feels dragged out and becomes monotonous.The guitars and drums mix superbly on the album, complementing each other to create heavy beats. The drummer keeps his fills fairly simple throughout the album.
The eigth track, Self Explosive is one of the more memorable tracks. The opening groove is one of those grooves that will paint a sly smile on your face and make you bang your head, after the groove there is a short break, and once again a pleasant explosion of aggression assaults your ears. The song ends with a thunderous breakdown.
The vocalist, George Hirsch, delivers a competent vocal performance, while being full of conviction and passion, it almost feels a bit predictable at times. This is really minor though. The lyricism is concise and good, pertaining to relationships mostly and often throwing questions at humanity. The fifth track, Memory Layne ends with the vocalist softly asking, "How do you criticise, when you stand so safe inside? How do you climb, when you built your walls so high? How do you fight, when your hands are firmly tied? How do you rise, when all you know is the downside?"
Blacklisted delivers an aggressive, compact piece of work. If you like hardcore music, this is a must.
