It's Monday and Mondays suck, so let's Grind it out with Regional Justice Center's World of Inconvenience.
And we're back to another powerviolence kick. I know, it's been such an under covered genre in a column that primarily began with the purpose of covering grindcore. But hey, they're closely married. Regional Justice Center's pummeling debut is another slab of delicious powerviolence punishment.
Like a lot of other people, I wasn't even aware of Regional Justice Center until To Live a Lie Records started talking about them and announcing they were putting out the vinyl along with Forever Never Ends. The band began very quietly in Seattle, WA, with basically no advertising itself, though they did play live shows. Though it began as a one-man-band, it has since rounded out to five members and honed its songwriting. And their debut World of Inconvenience shows that their hard work has very much paid off.
Regional Justice Center play powerviolence like they’ve been doing it for twenty-years and not burning out. As the genre is wont to do, the songs lurch and turn often, erratically shifting in tone from harsh grinding violence to circle pit etiquette. Case and point, the third track “Sperm Donor” sounds like Iron Lung meets early Ceremony. Splashes of downtime, but more just forward pummeling violence.
As far as runtime goes, through eleven tracks it feels like its almost over before it started. Most tracks clock in under a minute and only one pressing past ninety-seconds. But when you’ve track pieces like the hardcore/punk driven “Exploitation” and “Trapped” it’s to be expected. Things are short-lived yeah, but the album has spunk. Yeah, the rhythm changes suddenly but it never makes a song worse. If anything, else, the band knows how to infuse intensifying energy into every second of this record. From the shrieking breakdown in “Indecency” and its hardcore flow, to the upward trudge of “Amnesia”, to the final blasts and breaks of “Community Standards”, RJC have assembled a helluva debut.
I’d measure this as something the hardcore/punk crowd would like more than anything. It’s god plenty of grinding elements but someone who just isn’t that into powerviolence will just wanna take a skip. If you haven’t been introduced to powerviolence, this right here is a phenomenal record to start with. And a phenomenal record to grind out your Monday with.
I'm here.
