Artist: Dead Icons
Album: Condemned
Genre: Hardcore
Label: Bullet Tooth Records

Only about a decade ago, you were the cool kid on the block if your internet connection could download a simple image in under 15 seconds, but today, an internet provider’s CEO would be assassinated if it took that same amount of time to download an entire TV show. Waiting is no longer an inconvenience the world is forced to cope with; tedium has become a even beyond a third world problem, which seems like a fantastic step forward for humanity; a new era of immediacy has taken over, which of course, comes along with countless benefits to mankind. But this new idea of instant gratification, all the time, every time, has left us extremely spoiled, anything that isn’t absolutely immediate and extremely fast, simply isn’t worth the time. And this same infantile impatience has made its presence very well known in the music world, bands can burst onto the scene with a meteoric rise to the top of the charts, and fizzle away into nothingness in less time than it takes to book their first tour. It seems odd then, that the quick and dirty song doesn’t hold a more predominant position in today’s music, by the end of a standard length pop song, you could have illegally downloaded that band’s entire discography; three and a half minutes just just seems inefficient. The hardcore scene however, doesn’t like wasting time, as proved once again by Kentucky hardcore band, Dead Icons on their new album, Condemned. They managed to pack a full length’s tracklist into about half the standard time. And all impressive time management feats aside, this album sounds just like a fast paced hardcore album should, heavy, filthy, and just downright mean, which after all, is really the important part.

Of course, this is music we’re talking about here, and so form does have to take precedent over function at some point, and truth be told most bands couldn’t even comprehend how to compress an entire song – a complete, full-sounding, cohesive piece of music – into less than two minutes, but the hardcore community have always had a knack for such abbreviated musicianship, so all packaging techniques are kind of a moot point. But regardless, Dead Icons seem to be certainly up to the task of keeping the old hardcore tradition alive. There is a certain charm that comes along with a straight to the point, old school hardcore album; 12 songs, 25 minutes, no nonsense. Those that are even remotely familiar with the hardcore genre aren’t likely to be surprised by anything they hear on this album, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, hardcore has always had more to do with the entire experience than potential for groundbreaking innovations. That said, despite the fact that the album that only features one song that breaks the three minute mark, it still feels quite long. I hesitate to say it feels like it drags, it didn’t really, however it did like it was a lot longer than just 25 minutes. Maybe that was just effective packaging – making a lot out of a little – like the flat-pack furniture of music, and this album is Ikea, or maybe it can be interpreted as a flaw, that variable comes down entirely to personal taste. But as far as the more objective factors, like generally acknowledged essential elements to any good hardcore album, its not missing a thing. And if you’re a hardcore fan, then you undoubtedly know the sound I’m talking about, and if you know the sound I’m talking about, then there is a good chance you’re going to enjoy Condemned.

If you’re looking for a new hardcore album to fill up some spots in your rotation that have gotten a little stale, Condemned would be an excellent candidate to freshen things up. It’s not going to revolutionize any collection, nor will it rewrite the rules and boundaries of hardcore. But you probably weren’t expecting it to anyway, because as I said, in some cases – especially in genres like hardcore and punk – this is not a problem by any means, just a mere observation.

SCORE: 8/10
Reviewed by: Mike Hogan

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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