Vision of Disorder
Vision of Disorder (Roadrunner Records)
By: Todd Follett
From the murky NYC Underground Hardcore music scene comes this brutal offering manifesting NYC hardcore in it's purest form. Having already gained a heavy underground following through previous demos and their 7, Still, this quintet of urban ragers deliver, from first track to last, an offering which leaves you wondering what just happened. Some who have followed them for a while have said their self-titled debut album is watered-down and indicates the band already selling-out. I haven't heard any of their other stuff but if this is them watered-down, goddammit I LIKE it anyways.This is music straight from the heart of the city, and it sounds just like it. I gotta admit, I was damn impressed. I picked up the album because I loved the two songs they had on a sampler I picked up playing a concourse game at Ozzfest. The whole album thoroughly kept my interest and made me wanna mosh around more than a few times :).
Like I said, I was impressed. This band DELIVERS, if not being a little repetitive while they're at it. But, it's like I always say, if you're gonna be repetitive, at least repeat GOOD shit, and this band DOES!
Tim Williams' vocals range from a Layne Staley(AIC)-esque half-singing voice, to an Anselmo-like screaming that rivals whatever you can come up with. Matt Baumbach and Mike Kennedy rip intense riffs out with a power to be reckoned with, and when they explode into their grooves, you'll know it. Brendon Cohen takes the drums, and provides an able-bodied, thrashing background groove to the explosion of sound that is Vision of Disorder. The bass player is not listed with the band's credits, yet appears in the group pic, and is given credit as performing all the bass tracks. And Mike Fleischmann doesn't do too bad a job, either. I think a reason for this semi-alienation might have to do with the fact that the band started out without a bass player. Yes, you read that right.
Williams' lyrics range from the will to get things done(Element), to genocide in Bosnia(Ways to Destroy One's Ambition), to parental rage(Viola), to drug addiction(Excess), and a good job they do of making you feel what he feels, especially with his vocals, that can soften your soul at points, and induce your rage at others.
With lines like Sometimes the violence gets to me/makes me so sick I can't even see/I will prevail," from the first track of the album, Element," which was also the first track I heard on the sampler from Ozzfest that impressed me to buy the band's album, to I'll never give up my pride/And I'll never surrender my hate/You on the opposite side/You're the one who made me this way, from the stirring D.T.O., this band lets you know where they come from and makes no bones about it.
Try them. It's definitely worth a listen, and it will leave you just a little more educated about life than before. Rating: **** (out of five.)
