Bad Vibrations: Black Train

Independent

This Halifax trio comes with a heavy East Coaster street rep built on the solid work of singer/guitarist KC Spidle, ex-of Dog Day and it does not disappoint. The lineup’s completed by Evan Cardwell on bass and the mighty Meg Yoshida on drums. Put ‘em all together and they conjure up the kind of baleful noise you’d expect from a band called Bad Vibrations. Y’know, the grinding, deathcore guitars, rib shaking bass and massive drum assaults.

There’s all that and there’s something else going here, namely a ripping homage to early speed metal and the NY punk scene from which it derived. This is a sinister, heartfelt, swerve driving sound, outtakes from a time-warped, meth-fuelled mashup involving Anthrax and The Ramones

Buckle in and brace yourself because there will no soft entries here and precious little downtime.  Opening track ‘Losing Time’’s brief intro and headlong plunge is a good indicator of what you’re in for, given that most tracks  clock in between two and three minutes. With the notable exception of  “Growing”, a showcase  of raw axe power from Spidle coming in just under the two-minute mark.

Come for the dense death metal, stay for the burning speedcore.

James Lizzard