SEVERED HEAD OF STATE - power hazard - LP/NEW
Severed Head of State return with nine punishing new tracks. Hard
driving riffs and angry vocals give this release a real fist pumping
intensity. A lot of the songs are more mid tempo in the tradition of mid
period Poison Idea and other hardcore punk bands that took some cues
from Motorhead. Severed Head of State have been going for ten years now,
but are a band with no geographic center and with all members playing
in other bands. Guitarist Todd Burdette (Tragdy, HisHero Is Gone,
Warcry) delivers some really searing guitar riffs on this LP and the
guitar tone is perfect for the style, biting and corrosive like battery
acid. Jack Control (World Burns to Death) has always impressed me with
his raw and angry vocals and well thought out lyrics. A lot of bands
write about the horror of war and man's inhumanity to man just because
it's what fits the music. When I read Jack's lyrics I see that he's
looking beyond the black and white pictures of war victims in the
history books. The atrocities are not the result of one criminal act,
but of the recurring process of unrestrained power and authority run
amok. The bleak lryics and their focus on oppression and atrocity are a
searing reminder that there is much to be done and things will probably
get worse before they get any better. I've always though bassist Kelly
Halliburton (Masskontroll, Defiance, Clusterbombunit, Resist) had some
of the best style in hardcore dropping in some of his crucial Discharoge
style "walking" bass fills. Drummer Chris Pfeffer (Signal Lost, Storm
the Tower, Scorched Earth Policy) holds it all together with some sick
and precise beats