ALL OUT WAR

Four years of silence from the ALL OUT WAR camp, as frontman Mike Score focused on his day job as a high school history teacher, has done little to diminish the fire of anger and bitterness at this New York crossover band's core. While the metal/hardcore scene they helped found has spawned countless shades of emo-tinged fashion victim rock, ALL OUT WAR remain stubborn and steadfast in a metal sound they've refined, without really updating, since 1996. Their bastardized mix of BOLT THROWER, SLAYER and CRO-MAGS was always an underrated pleasure, and in this day and age, their simple, head-down, no-bullshit approach is so refreshing as to almost seem new again.

Really, it's been since the last OBITUARY album that such an unpretentious, stripped-down, formulaic-in-a-good-way album has come out on such a large label. The parallels don't end there either; like Roadrunner, Victory used to actually put out music that ALL OUT WAR fans would like. The cultural shift at the label is so profound that this album's release there is noteworthy (the CD arrived in the mail alongside some band called 1997, a female-led quintet who look like they could be some of Mike Score's more underachieving students, and whose CD has probably warped slightly from having to spend time in such close proximity with something so heavy).

Luckily for us, ALL OUT WAR — perhaps because of their inactivity – are delivering the ferocious vocals and steamroller riffs the same way now as they did when they started. If anything, the latest incarnation of the band is more focused, a little faster and tighter, and (if it's possible) even angrier than before. This album is all about truth in advertising — "Assassins In the House of God" is a scorching, scathing indictment of organized religions of all stripes, full of Old Testament (the book, not the band) wrath against politicians with blood on their hands, false prophets, and people "blinded by their hate" who "wallow in filth yet… deny their guilt… planting the seeds of destruction and the fall of the human race." It's a grim, brutal and unforgiving world as seen through ALL OUT WAR's eyes, but if their bludgeoning assault creates too much blunt-force trauma to raise awareness, it at least provides some hellacious catharsis.

If you like your hardcore so heavy it's occasionally mistaken for death metal, utterly uncorrupted by emo frippery, and as subtle as a brick to the back of the head, your saviors have returned. ALL OUT WAR is a lethally single-minded killing machine, and as of today, they have yet to disappoint.