Until The Ink Runs Out

hose familiar with Trustkill staples like Poison the Well, Walls of Jericho, or Nora know that the label means business when it comes to presenting some of the most brutally dynamic hardcore in America. No different is Eighteen Visions. Filled with metallic venom, the band attacks with a very loose style of hardcore that's filled with heavy bass riffing, relaxed drumming, and disharmonic guitar squeals. This creates a landscape of sound instead of a tight, technical composition. Mid-paced guitar work, with occasional bursts of enraged speed and blast beats, typify the album, along with a Will Haven-ish vocal style, tongue-in-cheek, socially conscious lyrics, and some scattered slow, melodic vocal parts -- à la Poison the Well. Samples from a TV program with Elvis as well as movies from The Shining to Back to the Future characterize this pop culture obsessed release, as they intertwine effectively with the music. Few bands in this genre own this skill. "Champagne and Sleeping Pills" is a standout track, filled with noisy dynamics that cross Will Haven's sloppy but stylish and inventive playing with PTW's melodic textures. When the tune trails off into a noisy mix of feedback and eerie Kubrick samples, the listener is treated to one of the album's most blissful moments. A close second is the daring "Wine 'Em, Dine 'Em, Sixty-Nine 'Em," with its sludgy pace and bludgeoning European-tinged guitar. Until the Ink Runs Out -- crafty yes, but brilliant no. Eighteen Visions, for all its finer points, still churns out a veritably clichéd hardcore release filled with repetitive riffery and lack of focus. Compared to Poison the Well or any of the other aforementioned metal/hardcore acts, this band sounds young, with tons of room for growth and development. Not a bad release by any means, but simply an album whose creative ink has clearly run dry for the time being. ~ Jason Hundey|