Review by Carl on February 16, 2023.

Cro-Mags, the insanely influential NYHC band with the soap opera level of history behind it. I knew the stories from early on, but it would take until the mid 90's before I got my first taste of their music in the form of "Best Wishes", and it blew me away. Album opener "Death Camps" alone sounded as if it could level a skyscraper, and I got into them big time. "Age of Quarrel", "Alpha Omega" and "Near Death Experience" would follow soon after, and when I heard a new album was in the pipes with Harley and Parris teaming up, I was stoked.

At the time, I was pretty disappointed by it. Not because the music was that bad, but the fact that all five songs of the White Devil EP (that I already owned) were on here in barely different versions left me with only seven actually new cuts. It gave this album a bit of a bitter aftertaste that kept hanging around for a long, long time, until I dug it up again recently and had to conclude that this is actually a solid offering of metallic hardcore.

Musically speaking, it is classic Cro-Mags for the biggest part. The powerful uptempo music, blazing guitar leads and characteristic vocals of Harley all could have been on their early classics with ease. The band combines punked-up thrash with solid New York hardcore, and pours this concoction in short, solid bursts of energy, with a level of musicianship and writing skills that a lot of other bands can only dream of. The furious anger and discontent that emante from the lyrics and execution of the music is almost tangible, and you can hear that Cro-Mags are out for blood here. Just listen to tracks like "Tore Up" and "Premeditated", and you will hear a band that is genuinely pissed-off and ready to lay down vengeance on all who wronged them. You can hear that this is no act, someone is about to get hurt. Or so it sounds anyway.

Not all of the songs sound this vicious, however. In tracks like "My Life" and "Jones", Cro-Mags pull the West Coast punkrock card way too obvious for my taste. Some rare exceptions aside, that style of music never tingled my Jimmy at all. To me, that stuff in general always had a beachblanket feel to it, and it takes the 'oomph' out of the music big time when these tracks come by. Between the pulsating aggression of the more hardcore stuff, these tracks sound way too chipper for my taste.

After the dubious business move of recycling the White Devil tracks and the uneven balance between the heavier songs and the oddly melodic stuff, there is one last thing that drove the undies right up my crack, and that is the tribal drumming part at the end of the album. Now, I know that stuff was the shit throughout a big part of the 90's: Sepultura scored big with it, and others like Overdose, Soulfly and Laberinto got on the wagon with gusto too, but I never really cared for it. Allow me to explain: in Belgium we have this festival with its focus on world music, and in my late teens/early twenties I did security there for a few years, so just believe me when I say I have heard enough of that stuff to last me a lifetime.

But do I consider this a bad album? Hell no! It has recently grown on me considerably, actually. The White Devil stuff was for most part the same guys who recorded this album, so in a way it makes sense. Kinda. It is still a cheap move, but it is what it is, right? The punk stuff does somewhat make sense in the big picture too, with the heavy material being more than solid enough to keep it all convincing throughout. The great production job helps too, of course. And the tribal part at the end, you ask? That's why the skip button exists, simple as that.

"Revenge" may not be of the legendary status of their first couple of albums, but an embarassment this isn't either, no way. Perhaps a bit flaky in places, but I've heard way worse from the infamous New York hardcore scene, that's for sure.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review by Carl on February 16, 2023.

Cro-Mags, the insanely influential NYHC band with the soap opera level of history behind it. I knew the stories from early on, but it would take until the mid 90's before I got my first taste of their music in the form of "Best Wishes", and it blew me away. Album opener "Death Camps" alone sounded as if it could level a skyscraper, and I got into them big time. "Age of Quarrel", "Alpha Omega" and "Near Death Experience" would follow soon after, and when I heard a new album was in the pipes with Harley and Parris teaming up, I was stoked.

At the time, I was pretty disappointed by it. Not because the music was that bad, but the fact that all five songs of the White Devil EP (that I already owned) were on here in barely different versions left me with only seven actually new cuts. It gave this album a bit of a bitter aftertaste that kept hanging around for a long, long time, until I dug it up again recently and had to conclude that this is actually a solid offering of metallic hardcore.

Musically speaking, it is classic Cro-Mags for the biggest part. The powerful uptempo music, blazing guitar leads and characteristic vocals of Harley all could have been on their early classics with ease. The band combines punked-up thrash with solid New York hardcore, and pours this concoction in short, solid bursts of energy, with a level of musicianship and writing skills that a lot of other bands can only dream of. The furious anger and discontent that emante from the lyrics and execution of the music is almost tangible, and you can hear that Cro-Mags are out for blood here. Just listen to tracks like "Tore Up" and "Premeditated", and you will hear a band that is genuinely pissed-off and ready to lay down vengeance on all who wronged them. You can hear that this is no act, someone is about to get hurt. Or so it sounds anyway.

Not all of the songs sound this vicious, however. In tracks like "My Life" and "Jones", Cro-Mags pull the West Coast punkrock card way too obvious for my taste. Some rare exceptions aside, that style of music never tingled my Jimmy at all. To me, that stuff in general always had a beachblanket feel to it, and it takes the 'oomph' out of the music big time when these tracks come by. Between the pulsating aggression of the more hardcore stuff, these tracks sound way too chipper for my taste.

After the dubious business move of recycling the White Devil tracks and the uneven balance between the heavier songs and the oddly melodic stuff, there is one last thing that drove the undies right up my crack, and that is the tribal drumming part at the end of the album. Now, I know that stuff was the shit throughout a big part of the 90's: Sepultura scored big with it, and others like Overdose, Soulfly and Laberinto got on the wagon with gusto too, but I never really cared for it. Allow me to explain: in Belgium we have this festival with its focus on world music, and in my late teens/early twenties I did security there for a few years, so just believe me when I say I have heard enough of that stuff to last me a lifetime.

But do I consider this a bad album? Hell no! It has recently grown on me considerably, actually. The White Devil stuff was for most part the same guys who recorded this album, so in a way it makes sense. Kinda. It is still a cheap move, but it is what it is, right? The punk stuff does somewhat make sense in the big picture too, with the heavy material being more than solid enough to keep it all convincing throughout. The great production job helps too, of course. And the tribal part at the end, you ask? That's why the skip button exists, simple as that.

"Revenge" may not be of the legendary status of their first couple of albums, but an embarassment this isn't either, no way. Perhaps a bit flaky in places, but I've heard way worse from the infamous New York hardcore scene, that's for sure.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review by Carl on August 25, 2020.

I got to know this grinding death unit through their excellent Where Monsters Dwell album and worked my way back from there. With their second album Engorged being a pretty disappointing affair, I didn't have the highest of hopes for their debut album because of it being a quite cobbled together deal. As it turns out, it isn't that bad if you don't pay too much attention to its flaws.

Despite a muffled production and an over-reliance on movie and cartoon samples, the music is better than I expected. Compared to Where Monsters Dwell this album showcases Engorged at their most embryonic stage. All the elements that made their third offering so great are present here in its most primitive form. As major influences I detect a heavy dose of "Extreme Conditions..." era Brutal Truth crossed with early Napalm Death with touches of Carcass thrown in, placing them neatly among other like-minded bands in this genre like Inhume, Exhumed or Ingrowing. What sets Engorged apart from those others is the fact that they inject some less obvious elements into the mix. Crossover and hardcore influences can be heard throughout and in tracks like 'F.A.N.G.S.' and 'Chemically Castrated' they incorporate the influence of Black Sabbath/Trouble/Saint Vitus which makes for a nice change of pace. As mentioned before, the production isn't all that on the first 11 songs and the sound quality takes another dive from track 12 on. Reason for this is that the Death Metal Attack demo has been tacked on as a bonus and yeah, you can definitely hear that. It has that 90's demo tape quality all over. Stylistically there isn't much of a difference, the band has the same modus operandi as on the first half of the album, with the detail that the demo material is a tad more primitive and unpolished, reminding me of Agathocles more than once. After the demo tracks we get a unnecessary crap sounding live song which I could have done without.

The music on offer isn't bad but it's the shitload of samples and the lesser production values that undermine the effort. What makes this album interesting is the chance to hear where the band came from and how they got to the banger that Where Monsters Dwell is. Musically this is pretty OK, but it's also just that, I'm afraid.

Rating: 7 out of 10