Sunday 15 April 2018

Rash Decision - Karoshi


Labels: Angry Scenes Records/Autonomonster Records/Charlie’s Big Ray Gun Records/Kibou Records/Let The Bastards Grind/Pumpkin Records/Rip Roaring Shit Storm Records/Shatterpunk Records/Smegma Records/TNS Records
Formats: Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: May 18

Tracklist:

1. 900 Minutes
2. The Martockian
3. Snakes
4. Buzzsaw Tomahawk
5. The Seagul Has Landed
6. Glass Cannons
7. Learning Part 5
8. Fuck The Tide
9. Knocked Loose
10. A Mouth's A Mouth
11. Sick And Tired
12. Salary Man
13. Medium Raw
14. Strife

I'm getting on it early today in a bid to cover a few things I've been sent recently. I've got a stacked list of releases that I'm still catching up on, as 2018 is already producing some stonking records and it's only gonna get better (trust me). I'm beginning with the latest LP from Cornwall's own mad-punks Rash Decision. The LP is currently up for pre-order and will officially come out in May. I hope that the track order's correct (please shout up it not).

Rash Decision has always been about fast punk with sense of humour. “Karoshi” takes that ethos and injects it with added amounts of thrashy hardcore. Opener 900 Minutes does not describe the length of the record but does kick things off at the right pace. The melody and straight-to-the-point nature of their sound is obvious on The Martockian. The riffs are punchy and the vocals (including the gang chants) are delivered with real energy. Considering many of the songs don’t get past two-minutes, Rash Decision still makes enough noise to make the price of admission more than worth it. Snakes balances aggression with groove, which overspills into Buzzsaw Tomahawk and helps create a catchy crowd pleaser, which will be popular live. The humour I mentioned earlier on manifests itself in the brilliantly titled The Seagul Has Landed, which sounds like a classic Descendents/NOFX mash-up. Snotty punk takes over on Glass Cannons and its great. Yeah some might say it’s abrasive but to hell with them. You can even headbang to it! Learning Part 5 channels the urgency of Napalm Death and the like into ten-seconds of mayhem.

The ominous sound of a storm and the sea can be heard as Fuck The Tide begins. It sounds and feels like a more venomous and serious song. The atmosphere created is palpable. They return to the grinding/fast sound on Knocked Loose, though there’s still a sense of tension in it and with the threat of a breakdown, it’s hard to ignore. There’s rock n roll in this here song. A Mouth’s A Mouth contains subtle bluesy guitar and ends very abruptly, while Sick And Tired introduces an extra level of technicality and some great hardcore vocal affectations to boot. They appear to be raging against the white-collar elite with Salary Man, though I may have got that wrong. Either way it’s like being curb-stomped by a bull. Penultimate song Medium Raw comes around way to quickly. More humour, a cheeky tribute to Enya’s Orinoco Flow and even a nod to veganism, it’s got it all. Album closer Strife hammers home just how infectious this record is. There you go. I’ve always maintained that this blog is a family blog but fuck this is good! The cover art, the recording/mixing/mastering, the songs and the performance show that Rash Decision has really stepped up on “Karoshi”. 

The link to the promo trailer for the album is below and the band has also just released a video for opener 900 Minutes, which is made up of various still shots:-


Pre-orders are now up on Rash Decision's bigcartel page - http://rashdecision.bigcartel.com


Links to all of the labels who are helping with the release are below:-

Charlie’s Big Ray Gun Records - https://www.facebook.com/CBRGrecords
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