ALL TEETH

Intensity! Emotion! Intelligence! Hardcore! That completes the review. In all seriousness, it is in fact a spot on synopsis of ALL TEETH's "Young Love". The band name fits the hardcore bite, just as ALL TEETH is right at home on a Panic Records roster that doesn't tend to screw around when it comes to hardcore that is smartly written and unabashedly in one's face with not a disingenuous note or meaningless lyric to be found. Those sentiments encapsulate the approach taken on the five-track "Young Love" EP.

Indeed, "Young Love" succeeds first for the sheer intensity involved, made even more penetrating by the poignant and personal lyrics of lead barker David Kelling. Vacuous tough guy blather this is not; the toughness resides solely in the music. And we're talking leather-tough and nails-hard. But it's not just because of the tonnage; it's also got a lot to do with the conviction in the message. While it's probably the millionth time you've seen an AMERICAN NIGHTMARE reference in a hardcore review, in the case of "Young Love" it is an apt one for all of the preceding reasons.

What makes this sucker tick though is the winding road traveled in each song and that includes impacting spoken word segments from Sammy Winston. All of the tunes hit hard but never in the same place for very long, as evidenced by the shift to intricate picking underneath angst-ridden vocals during the middle of "Goodbye Faye Dolan", the first of several vocal changeups on the album, this one courtesy of Cody Sullivan. Both "Caller I.D." and "Downers" include lordly mid-tempo grooves, the latter featuring a clever rumbling tempo and brilliant lead vocal tradeoffs between Kelling and guest throat Juan C. Gabe. "Long Nights" is even more mixed up. Included is another perfectly timed spoken word bit accompanying the guitar whine and some brass-knuckled guest vocals from Jay Maas. "Oh Disposable Me" closes the affair as a statement of depth in hardcore songwriting; fast and furious parts, a righteous breakdown with Ross Farrar's NYC HC guest barks, and some unified singing/shouting, not to mention a pinch of somber melody.

On paper, that last song in particular might be mistaken for something too artsy for its own good or something as watered down as post-HC. Ain't nothin' artsy or "post" about it. "Young Love" is all about the "hard" in hardcore. Fortunately, the ALL TEETH guys understand the dangers of writing oneself into a HC corner from which escape is impossible and about which none will ever remember. In short? See opening four-word review.