Been listening to this a ton… I said this in my webstore description, but this really is the perfect combination of Inepsy (with whom Proxy share members) and vintage melodic oi! like the best Blitz songs. The 12″ is a little expensive since it’s an import, but it’s well worth it… these songs stick to your ribs.

Buy it

I just uploaded a brand new Dark Ages track to the Sorry State SoundCloud page. This time around it’s the track “Power.” When I first got the master recording of this monster of an LP, the track “Merchants of Cool” was my clear favorite (hence the fact that that’s the other track posted to SoundCloud). I loved that song’s Die Kreuzen-esque guitar lines and blitzkrieg pace. However, as I’ve lived with this album for the past few months, “Power” is now the clear standout. I’ve always loved tracks that start out with just drums… it really builds the tension and gets you wanting more. Then when the bassline comes in… wow, what a riff! It’s just so catchy and perfect. Dark Ages changed bass players before the recording of this album, and while the old guy was no slouch, I must say that the bass playing on Can America Survive? is just phenomenal. The guy just really knows when to hold down the riff and when to throw in a catchy little fill… it very much reminds me of Eric from Direct Control, another one of my favorite bass players in hardcore.

When the guitar finally kicks in I’m instantly reminded of how perfect the production on this album is. Nowadays it seems to be something of a badge of honor to have the worst production possible, but Dark Ages have gone the opposite route, giving us a crystal clear recording where you can truly hear everything. Not only is everything really punchy and powerful, but each instrument has its own distinct frequency range and is clearly audible in the mix. You can always hear the bass and guitar as very distinct from one another, and when they separate off from each other the impact is  huge.

Speaking of impact, my absolute favorite part of this song is the guitar solo that starts at about 1:22. Now I love guitar solos, but this one is very different than what I’m used to hearing. Perhaps it’s because I listen to so much Japanese hardcore, but I usually think of the guitar solo as the climax of the song. The tension builds throughout the verses, is released somewhat in the chorus, and then the epic guitar solo comes in and knocks everyone on their ass. Now, the solo in this song is great, but for a completely different reason. The sparseness of the playing is just perfect… as the solo kicks in, the bottom seems to drop out of the song. It’s been building the entire time, but instead of exploding into a huge climax, the entire thing disintegrates into this glorious, nearly-atonal mess. I honestly cannot imagine a more perfect collection of notes to put in this spot in the song.

While this is (right now, at least) my favorite moment on the LP, this thing flat-out smokes from start to finish. If you haven’t bought it already, there are still a few color vinyl copies available here. In addition to color vinyl, this LP comes with a gorgeous, heavy, tip-on-style sleeve and a HUGE, awesome poster.