REVIEW: Hometown Hate – Worthless [2015]
Artist: Hometown Hate
Album: Worthless
As of March 2015, there are almost seven and a half billion people on earth. Among them there are lawyers, doctors, chefs, actors, businessmen and women–and the every day Joe or JoAnn sick-pack. Out of so many people in so many cities around the world, many contribute to society—adding something tangible in the form of service or product to make the world a better place. However, there are those who don’t: leeches, cheats, liars and thieves. Those people are wastes—they are Worthless, and they are the fodder for the latest album by the same name from Pittsburgh’s Hometown Hate. Driven by demonic, deep-seated loathing and a desire for violence, Hometown Hate let loose with a scathing display of heavy hardcore expertise, targeting the low-lives and lecherous wastes of human life, making Worthless a worthwhile example of energetic, evil music at its finest.
One of the most beautiful things about beatdown hardcore is its bold, simplistic styling. In a time where “simple” is often confused with unoriginal, humdrum or just plain old bad, Hometown Hate beg to differ, effortlessly proving the heavy music masses wrong. Worthless has no frills; no hype or floral “fluff.” From the eerie onset of “Torn,” to the last sinister slug in “Kings of Pain,” the group’s percussionist doesn’t stop laying into the listener with brute force, trauma-inducing force. Marvelously mixed and disastrously deep, Hometown Hate’s drumming is a steamroller, flattening the listener and leaving plenty of space for the bass to cover them in a thick layer of concrete. “Drifting” is a diabolical example; the percussion delivers the first punch in a slamming one-two dynamic where the bass follows, spending the rest of the track simply burying the listener in filth. However, The drums and bass guitar aren’t the only source of lethal heaviness to be found on Worthless—as Hometown Hate’s guitar works together with the dynamic duo to provide a comprehensively crushing attack of down-tuned destruction that is sure to leave the listener limbless and lifeless. The album’s lead single, “Kamerad” is a wonderful example of the relatively limited variety of the ways The fretwork lays waste to the listener: opening with a sludgy, atmospheric riff that quickly crashes down on the listener. “Kamerad” is one the best examples of Hometown Hate’s songwriting, as it demonstrates dynamic mastery of the band’s proficiency at all things heavy.
While Hometown Hate’s musicianship is a cantankerous campaign of crushing, brutalizing beatdown, that’s not all these hellions have to offer. Every campaign needs a voice; a resident preacher of hatred and disgust. Worthless has one of the best beatdown has to offer: Matt Spencer. Spencer’s harsh, hectic yell—coupled with grisly growls and sharp shouts—takes every aspect of Worthless‘ wrath and triples it. Even moments like those on “Ghost” and “Nine Eyes” where the band’s musicianship falters, Spencer stands tall, smothering the listener with a sermon of scathing bitterness. Spencer’s shouts and screams flood into the listener’s ears like acid, melting their delicate sensibilities and leaving only the parts of the listener that thirst for violence. Where Spencer is extreme and engaging, he is also conniving and catchy, as “No Heroes” is bound to get lodged in the listener’s head, just as “Torn” features more than its fair share of furious one-liners. Spencer adds an extra twenty degrees of demonic heat to every second of Worthless that makes the most memorable moments of the record hotter than Hell itself.
Hometown Hate’s only creative limitations are the ones imposed by the style of music they play. Worthless spans every style of bloody-knuckle beatdown hardcore—with moments drawing from the genre’s roots, and moments crafted from the styles and influences of their contemporaries. Worthless is catchy on tracks like “No Heroes,” “Torn” and “Kings of Pain,” but brutal and straightforward on hardcore anthems like “City of Greed.” What’s more, “Kamerad” sees the band experimenting with touches of metallic flavor and fury that meet with enormous success. Worthless is as much a parasite as the pathetic men and women that serve as its fuel. It is an album that will waste no time in invading the listener’s head and gnawing away at their brain, crafting room to live and reproduce, propagating its punishing and violent nature until the entire heavy music community is awash in jaw-dropping displays of savage hatred.
Worthless is dynamic: it is a culling of the cowards and filth that writhe all across the world, and it is an anthem to get people through even the most depressing spells of self-loathing. It is a call to cure the world, as Hometown Hate take a scythe to the scum of the planet while encouraging the downtrodden to rise above and fight—it is a call to arms that is sure to succeed in mosh pits around the nation.
8.5/10
For Fans Of: Blunt Trauma, Drowning, Genocide District, Have Mercy, Lockout
By: Connor Welsh
