OBSESIF KOMPULSIF / BURNING CIVILIANS – When Disaster Meet Hardcore Split-CDR

OBSESIF KOMPULSIF / BURNING CIVILIANS
When Disaster Meet Hardcore Split-CDR
(Straight Records)

Obsesif Kompulsif comes from Depok in Indonesia, while Burning Civilians resides in Telok Intan up north. Two bands coming in from the same fastcore wanna-be-lity but from my point of view, only one of them is nearer to the goal than the other.

Before I go further, I must confess my abhorrence for mindless, lets-play-exactly-by-the-numbers fast-core. It used to be fun to listen to; it’s whacky, it’s irreverent and it’s pissing upon sacred walls with no apologies offered; and yes, some bands still do it well.

But nowadays, well, maybe a few years ago, there were too many of them paddling furiously up on the same faster-faster creek and it’s became too samey, too bloody bankrupt of ideas. In the end it’s a ho-hum affair, it’s not funny anymore. And what I have here is almost a chore to listen to.

Oh, well. lets put on the CD again. Okay. Hmmm. Obsesif Kompulsif is not that bad if you’re hopelessly hooked to the style. They featured all that snippets of dialogues and stuff forming intros or outros to their songs and then proceeded to pummel in the expected speedy madness with a yell there and a growl there and a good moshing riff here etc. Nothing special and the guitar is slightly outta tune but at least it’s nearer to the goal.

Burning Civilians, on the other hand, still hasn’t progressed much from their old demo, well, maybe there are a bit more of cod-thrash-metal riffage added along with the slower tempo. I suspect, the band is now heading towards a more metal sound but failed miserably. None of the songs here works for me; the playing, singing and production are worse.

Obsesif Kompulsif [rating:2/5]
Burning Civilians [rating:1.5/5]

Straight Records @ MySpace | Burning Civilians @ MySpace | Obsesif Kompulsif @ MySpace

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