XBISHOPX

Oh those pesky little Xs. You know what that means: another angry mob of straightedge hardcore kids. Hey, as long as no one is pulling a "Salt Lake City" on a red-blooded, beer drinking and chain smoking metal or hardcore kid, then who really gives a rat's ass? I know I don't. Oh yeah, "Suicide Party" by xBISHOPx is another in a long line of unobjectionable, but ultimately undistinguished, hardcore releases.

There are a handful of satisfying lip splitting tunes here, such as "xBishopx Basically Owns Your Face", a track that features tough pace changes, stop-start rhythm busting, and lyrics about disposable sheep people. Tempo-shifting smash-ups like "Tight Lip Politics", "Old Habits" (dig the wicked bass lines and grinding grooves),and "Wreck". In some cases it takes all of 42 seconds to vomit out every bit of angst and frustration, as the band so ably demonstrate on "Next Big Thing". And sometimes it takes a mere five seconds to shout "Go fuck yourself!" on the song of the same name. Yeah, it's silly, but no sillier (and more true to life) than singing about projectile vomiting or corpse evisceration. Whatever rings your bell, right?

There are a few overly cliché moments, such as the gang-shouting diatribe against the self-absorbed called "Hookers & Blow" or the less-than-effective "Eat Shit", but it would be foolish to expect a cutting edge hardcore CD when the whole point is to make a balls-out, head-busting hardcore CD. "Suicide Party" pretty well gets the job done, even if it is difficult to recommend this particular release over similar ones (or better ones for that matter). Will "Suicide Party" give you ample opportunity to get your hardcore groove on? Sure it will.