Ah this is more like it, no bullshit just straight up brutality and with a name like Scalping Screen, which sounds like a good death in an 80s video nasty what else could we expect? This crew come from Finland, they have sleeves full of tatts, angry glares and one of em even wears a flat cap. As for the album cover there is a big fuck off canine giving it some aggro and looking like it wants to tear your balls off, which is pretty much what the music here does.
This is the group’s 3rd full length since 2003 and it goes like the clappers from beginning to end as it knocks out 12 rabid hate anthems in less than half an hour. The production is hefty and first song ‘Two Bladed Sword’ comes at you with a decapitating zeal, full of metallic swagger, an odd breakdown and punk fuelled riffing. Vocals are nice and gruff and full of anger and it’s a quick invite to cartwheel around whatever space you have at your disposal. I guess this is going to get that metalcore tag that’s so dreaded but if the genre was all this good we wouldn’t all be moaning about it so much. I can detect everything from Agnostic Front through to Pro-Pain along with some hefty death metal and skin Oi backing chants as well as that underlying punk vibe and it’s all nicely handled.
The font and colouring on the inside booklet isn’t the easiest to read but it is evident that the normal themes of alienation, society and its ills and all that fucks us off are present and correct. The lyrics of ‘Death Penalty’ talking about teenage boys stabbing an eight year old girl in front of her father as they have something to prove are particularly unsettling and all too worryingly familiar. This is pissed off music designed for a generation living through hate and fear.
There is no point in a track dissection here, as I said this is just brutal and chugs all the way through apart from the occasional break to let a bass and drum salvo build up before it piles away, fists flying and bitch slaps you. There is a good grasp of melody in the rage so it is quite enjoyable in its own angry way and not a case of brutality for brutalities sake in the slightest. So line this up and be prepared to be the biggest tough guy in the privacy of your living room for the next 28 minutes, this ones a blast!
http://www.myspace.com/scalpingscreen
