In the pre-internet days, buying a record from a band based solely off the other associated bands was usually a safe bet. If this were 1991, and I was seeing that Santa Cruz’s Seized Up featured members of BL’AST!, Good Riddance, The Distillers and Fast Asleep, you bet I’d be scooping it up sight unseen.
“Deathweb” starts this sophomore album and it doesn’t take long for Chuck Platt’s chunky bass playing to draw us in to the hard-hitting punk, where Clifford Dinsmore’s talking versus shouting suits the forcefulness. “Forum Of Decay” follows, and allows Andy Granelli’s furious drumming to guide the mesmerizing delivery, while “Force Fed Hate” swirls with a thick tunefulness that runs beneath the soaring guitar solos.
The middle tracks, thankfully, continue the formula. “Omen Of Despair” shows us how powerful Danny B’s guitar can be in a more post-punk climate, though it’s the dense song craft and gang vocals of “What You Kill” that should make anyone a lifelong fan—if they’re into hardcore punk, that is.
The back half of the listen leads with the longest track (and it’s not even 3 minutes), “Turn Christian And Move Inland,” which contains an energy that resembles mid ’90s San Diego post-hardcore (I’m looking at you, Drive Like Jehu). Others, such as “Mindfield” touch on earlier influences like Black Flag, where the driving rhythm section is met with searing guitar work. The final track, “Forged In Fire,” might be the most melodic tune, but it’s certainly not without biting vocals, muscular guitar and Platt’s dizzying bass acrobatics.
Lyrically, the band target religion, self-medication and trying to exist in a diseased society in every sense of the word. Musically, they target punk fans from 1979 until current, and one of those fans is thinking this is 2024’s best record.
