Guns Up! - All This Is (CD)

All Music Guide

Straight outta suburban Haverhill, Massachusetts, hardcore teens Guns Up favor a strictly oldschool hardcore approach that was invented before they were born: whiplash unison riffing, screamed vocals (thankfully not in the increasingly hackneyed death grunt style that's infiltrated too many punk bands from the metal scene) and at least one sloweddown section per song for maximum moshability. Collecting all three songs from the band's debut 7" alongside six new tracks, All This Is is all streamlined efficiency, twominute slabs of hardcore aggression bashed out with such cool precision that the album feels oddly bloodless. Songs like "How It's Done" sound like they were written to a blueprint in the same way that the most formulaic, radioready pop songs are, only instead of versechorusverse, it's shoutalongmoshtwo stepshoutalong. The best hardcore albums have always been those which are most fearless about playing around with and expanding the genre's boundaries, but to a disappointing e...xtent, All This Is colors within the lines. - Stewart Mason, All Music Guide Read more Less