Stuck In A Rut - No Future

This record has been nestling in my inbox for some time, which I apologies for. Stuck In A Rut are another band that are starting to make a name for themselves both in and outside of Romania. They're a three-piece hardcore band, with two records to their name, including this one which was released about a year ago today.

These guys have been lucky enough to get on bills recently with bands like Agent Attitude and Sectarian Violence in Romania, so they've got the chops for it.

Tracklist:-

1. The Illusion of Safety
2. Statistics
3. Borrowed Time
4. Entertainers
5. The "Free" Press
6. The City
7. No Future
8. Closed Doors

No Future is filled with quick fire, hardcore blasts. Most of the songs here are fast. There are only two songs that go past the two-minute mark and opener The Illusion of Safety is one of them. It starts with a really chuggy, thick guitar intro, which dies down, to allow Stuck In A Rut to launch into a suitably aggressive verse. The vocals are coarse and the sound is akin to earlier-Strife and the like. It sits at the sludgier end of hardcore.

Stuck In A Rut take a more energetic turn when Statistics kicks in. They flit between fast, grind influenced hardcore and bass heavy slower sections. Borrowed Time, Entertainers and The "Free" Press last about a minute and a half between them and make you think more of power-violence than hardcore. The production of the album is such that you mainly get the vocals and drums, with the guitars buried in the mix when Stuck In A Rut are in full flow. When the guitars play on their own though, they sound thick and heavy.

The City has some old-school black metal sensibilities to it, in the vocals thanks a raspy scream. The stop-start aesthetic of the instruments is cool too. No Future is the lengthiest number here. It winds into life with a slow intro and then seeps into a mid-paced, cold dirge. The subtle distance of the vocals here make it sounds even more menacing and strangely minimal. There's no denying the skills that Stuck In A Rut have, with the drums especially sounding very solid. They possess a really punky edge in the mid section of No future and can be heard very prominently throughout the record.

So, Closed Doors closes out No Future. It starts with deafening, screaming feedback before Stuck In A Rut end with a swagger. Their punk inspired hardcore is interjected with some ace leads. It shows a flair, which wasn't present in their previous songs and ends the record on a high.
Listen to No Future below:-


You can also download No Future free from Bandcamp as well.

You can find them on Facebook here http://www.facebook.com/StuckinarutDIY.