FIRST BLOOD

It is really quite simple: Most of you either dig this style of HATEBREED-by-way-of-TERROR metal-edged hardcore or you do not. Yes, the market is flooded, but quality acts still exist within it. The San Francisco Bay Area's FIRST BLOOD are an upper-tier, tough-guy hardcore band and debut album "Killafornia" is chock full of iron riffs, adrenaline-pumping pit slams, and true-to-life, conviction-backed lyrical content.

The song "First Blood" is the best the album has to offer and defines the band's face-breaking ways, as well as some solid, if not groundbreaking, songwriting. Foundation-shaking double bass from Brandon Thomas and the commanding bark of vocalist Carl Schwartz (ex-TERROR, ex-SWORN VENGEANCE) give these songs muscle and credibility. Of course, in the case of Schwartz, his fiery devotion to the vegan cause is no secret. As such, his approach is hardly a subtle one. No matter the topic, the vitriol he spits is made of contempt for the silent and hate for the enemy, regardless of how said "enemy" may be manifested.

I cannot quite put "Killafornia" in the same league as TERROR's "One with the Underdogs" or either of the last two HATEBREED albums because aside from highlights like "First Blood", the tunes aren't always the most memorable. Pure violence and a little indefinable thing called feeling just about make up for it though. And yes, the album is filled with chugging breakdowns and hard-ass stomps, so do not expect wheel reinvention.

No matter what side of the line you are on, the adrenaline rush produced and the determined messages shouted make it damn difficult to not feel something, even if it is just the urge to knock the shit out the guy standing closest to you. If you are looking for a vicious hardcore album that holds on to the roots of the storied genre and mixes up the arrangements just enough to keep things moving, then "Killafornia" is your ticket. Wear a helmet.