(Leperkahn returns to NCS with this review of the latest release by Obliterations from Los Angeles.)

I just came off my first midterms week of college. As expected, this resulted in quite a bit of anger and stress, and a wish to blow off said stress both during and after the week. Basically, I was in dire need of something that would make me want to careen off of people, bumper-cars style, something to accompany the cathartic screams of rage and frustration that come with trying to understand that damn delta-epsilon proof. Luckily, that’s exactly when Obliterations came out with a new record, Poison Everything.

I nearly had a panic attack when I heard these guys’ first self-titled EP roughly a year ago. Their brand of ballsy hardcore punk was exactly the kind of thing I needed to blow off college app stress, with its self-professed mix of Black Sabbath and Black Flag. This time around – after throwing in one more EP in the interim – the band have tossed in just a touch of Motorhead, particularly on the “Ace of Spades”-like opening for “The One That Got Away” and the bluesy swagger of “Shame”. That said, this record is largely just an extension of the EPs before it, a collection of raucous two-minute explosions boiling over with cathartic rage and riffs that Greg Ginn wishes he wrote. Each track is merely another sonic punch in the face, with only the title track breaking up the feverish pace before “Shame” marks the album’s transition to a more oozing, slow-burning anger, as on “Ad Nauseum”, “Open Casket”, and closer “The Middle Of The End”. Continue reading »