Album Review

Trash Talk – Eyes & Nines

• 15th May 2010

Sacramento’s Trash Talk are the epitome of aggressive, anarchistic hardcore, with their cliché name and morbidly titled tracks (Vultures, Flesh & Blood, Explode…) So what about their sound?

While it’s so relentless it’s difficult to listen to the album in one sitting – these are tracks which can only be fully appreciated if blasted at full volume – the four-piece demonstrates an ability to experiment within their sound.

They have mastered the obligatory impossibly complicated riffs, furious ‘singing’ (screaming) and doom-laden guitar sounds. Yet there are some tracks which would stand out if played in a dingy rock club where middle-aged men with waist-length headbang constantly between trips to the bar. Explode has a (dare it be said?) catchy repetition of its title, and Hash Wednesday is a strange instrumental track with those doom-and-gloom guitars played over the sounds of busy crowds which become the voice of a lone preacher, and eventually the strain of singer Lee Spielman’s vocal chords.

It’s fair to say the themes and characteristics of Trash Talk’s music are exactly what you’d expect from a hardcore band, but if that’s your scene then here is a band who can offer you a little more than their peers. But be warned – they’re definitely not for the faint-hearted; it’s not an album you’d listen to on a family road trip!