HORSEWHIP
HORSEWHIP “Consume And Burn”
By Dr. Abner Mality
HORSEWHIP is a Florida band combining harsh modern hardcore with screamo influences. Must confess, screamo has never been my thing and its presence here keeps me from giving this band a full endorsement. I just find that vocal approach to be exhausting.
“Consume And Burn” reminds me of a bee sting. It causes pain, but not for long and in an hour or two, you forget it about it. The record is almost a mini-LP...it blazes in, rips away violently and quickly retreats back to limbo. The shortness benefits it, because 45 minutes of this would be a slog. The production is pretty good, especially the drums, which really boom away. There are points of interest, like the melodic breaks in “Buried” and “Pain” which show the outline of a greater band. The brief instrumental “Dark Matter” is quite restrained, which makes following track “Pain” more potent. “Plague Machine” has some almost industrial moments amidst the hardcore/screamo mayhem. “Circadian Rhythms” pulses with an insect-like sound at the beginning and end.
Strangely enough, it’s these little interludes that are the most interesting parts of the album. The full blast attacks like “Cutting Through” and “Full of Fury” are angry but anonymous and you won’t remember much about them once the record stops playing. I suspect this record is establishing the basic HORSEWHIP sound...perhaps the experimentation will blossom on later releases.