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Take It Back! - Atrocities

Rating

RIYL

Comeback Kid
Have Heart
Stretch Armstrong

Release Date

11/10/2009

Label

Facedown Records

Tracklist

1. The Beginning. Nothing.
2. New Empire
3. Lost Generation
4. Hollow Eyes
5. A Reason To Scream
6. What We're Fighting For
7. Minneapolis
8. The Skies Are Empty
9. The Prodigal Soldier
10. The End Of Apathy

Users Rating 2 ratings	Your Rating Create an account or log in to rate this album
Recent Ratings
resist sundials	Bill Lohr

It’s always refreshing to hear a young band that is finally beginning to get it. Undoubtedly, most listeners shoved Take It Back!’s lackluster debut full-length Can’t Fight Robots to the bottom of their listening pile after hearing an album that didn’t really do anything worth remembering. But something miraculous must have happened to the band in the interregnum between their last album and their new full-length Atrocities. Instead of a band treading water in a sea of no identity, their new album shows a cohesive unit of musicians who write and perform dynamic, powerful, engaging and most importantly, distinctive songs.

The album opener, “The Beginning. Nothing”, begins with a distant ringing minor-chord guitar before the sound of thunder fades into the full band exploding in with impact and power. As the band pounds away, everything sounds absolutely monstrous. Thick and heavy guitars, pulsating and open drums, and the grainy, irate vocals of frontman Nick Thomas assault the listener from the beginning. As the album fades into the next track “New Empires” it is clear that Take It Back! is now a completely different beast. There is still a huge influence from jumpy hardcore greats Comeback Kid and Stretch Armstrong, but the band has heavily incorporated the type of monolithic, slow burn hardcore that bands like Have Heart and Modern Life Is War perfected before disbanding. The slow bombast that opens songs like “Lost Generation” and “The Skies are Empty” hit with such heaviness that it feels akin to being bludgeoned in the best way possible.

The above isn’t to say that the album is a completely slow affair or that keeping it slow and viciously heavy is the only place where the band can shine. Instead, the band shows that they’ve even learned to instill their (only-slightly) poppier material with the same substance that was gained in the aforementioned songs. The speedy “Hollow Eyes” and “What We’re Fighting For” do hardcore influenced pop punk better than any of the other bands who are flying that flag. The grating vocals of Thomas display a clean voice in these songs, which while not sounding soothing or pretty in the least bit shows an emotional range that would be hard to top. Thankfully, Take It Back! has been able to stay away from the disease of silly and redundant breakdowns that has been plaguing the scene for the past few years and have introduced jangly and unique guitars chords into heavy parts creating a surprising juxtaposition of melody and fury. The 54-second “Minneapolis” deserves a special mention for standing out not just because it is unique among the album but also because it is an aural blast that drives with such rage and speed that it borders on power-violence and grindcore.

It probably isn’t the healthiest thing to gush about a band so young and unproven, but this is one of the more competent and solid hardcore albums to come out this year. With very few missteps (some borderline cheesy lyrics and a less-epic-than-expected closer), a newfound skill in writing exciting and important music, and an extremely short runtime where nothing overstays its welcome, Take It Back! has now introduced itself into the shortlist of bands that holds enough promise and potential to inherit the hardcore crown. Hopefully Atrocities is just the beginning of a band reaching their peak because the world deserves to hear more music of such high quality.

--Stephen Harris