Pardon me, PR folks, but if you’re gonna compare a band to BROKEN BONES, that band better drink engine oil through scalded throats, belch up steam like a train in the 1800s, and pack a punch harder than a hit to the cranium with a nail-spiked bat. It’s gotta be memorable as fuck, but it’s also gotta be interesting too, especially since we’re usually talking an album length of under a half-hour.
Straight outta Leicester comes FERAL STATE, returning after 2022’s self-titled wrecker with the aptly named II. Straight to the point, as a band of this sort must be. Three years is an eternity when it comes to hardcore/crust/punk/thrash, but ‘Concrete’ shows the group haven’t missed a (d-)beat in the interim. Raid sirens warp the air, and an instantly romper-stomper groove quickly gets blindsided by Landers’ David Hellion INTEGRITY-inspired bellow, the Green/Fearon rhythm section firing on all cylinders. ‘Live In Fear’ continues the charge, a snappy punk coda unexpected after the bloodletting thus far but perfectly fitting.
Fearon’s bass leads off ‘Dragged Down’, and if you were looking for a down-tuned mass of sludge, you’re not gonna find it in II. What you will find is its snot-nosed, two-fingers flying brother who just got paroled showing up at the basement show ready to lay a CRO-MAGS level beatdown on anyone in the vicinity, foe or friend. Because it’s all in the name of fun, right? Remember coming home bruised and battered from shows, sore as mighty fuck, but exhilarated? That’s the vibe of ‘Ready To Fall’, and the entire album, really.
‘Slow Decay’ does, in fact, slow the pace a bit, but in this case the slower (yet still frenetic) pace serves to make the pummeling more forceful, more intentional. I’m hearing bits of KILLING TIME here, DRI in the Christian Nurse solo that streaks past, while ‘Tranquilised’ and ‘Head Drill’ push the pedal not to but through the floor in their speedrace (or speedrage?) to THE EXPLOITED’s early unbridled fury in the form of ‘Scab’.
At 2:02, ‘Bad Time’ is my pick here, due to its crossover moments; think CRUMBSUCKERS but even more rampant. I believe Nurse has been spending some time experimenting with tone, as ‘Mold Ridden’ shreds sharply, not in a surgical sense; more of the feeling of being disemboweled by a crosscut saw manned by two lumberjacks on M-CAT.
Can’t trim the fat if there’s already a lean mean hardcore machine revved up and ready to do damage. And that’s exactly what FERAL STATE is and does with II. Devour or be devoured!
Review By: Lord Randall
FERAL STATE
II
Road To Masochist