Self-released, 1 July 2021
Action News makes chaotic-as-shit hardcore for the “Failed State”.
New Philadelphia hardcore band Action News searches and destroys. Featuring members of bands including Jesus Piece, Nothing, Creepoid, and others, the band is decidedly pessimistic about the state of affairs. As they see it, things are chaotic and brutal right now. And instead of providing comfort, the band indulges the chaos and maybe, just maybe, provides a bit of catharsis in the process.
The 7-song Failed State is anything but. Leadoff song “Eternal Optimist” opens with a paranoid stomp buttressed by ambient feedback noises and melodies before making a quick whirling break and finally leaning into a fast-paced drum battering march backing a squall of corrosive guitars. And there’s no reprieve from here on out. Songs like “Bad Peace” sound like the chaotic is-there-anything-to-hold-this-shit-together collapse of a building, or maybe of the free world – brutal and hanging by a thread. Others, like “God Don’t See Under the El” and “Concrete Soul”, are builders. The stepping stone drums to the heavens on “God Don’t See” become building blocks in a song that comes off like modern warfare and “Concrete Soul” opens with breakdown-slow drums that pound simply, finally going double-time, and then double-time from that. And the insistent guitar lead pulls me in while the rest of everything comes crashing down all around.
The other three blow up all the same. “Cut Deep” is a stomping antagonistic cacophony, harsh and destructive across the board. But maybe my two favorites on the record come with “Dennis Wilson” and “Failed State”. I have no idea if “Dennis Wilson” is about the ill-fated Beach Boy, but the song is positively furious, pulsing and raging like a nor’easter and creating the aural approximation of a strobe light during the pounding metallic-thrash parts. And “Failed State”? My goodness, “Failed State” is purely ferocious, opening with siren sounds and moving in a fitful rage between mid-tempo and pulverizing, with stop-and-go’s and a sludgy breakdown that builds to a kinetic whirr. The longest song on here, it shapeshifts and keeps my attention while bombing out with lead guitar overtop the caterwauling mess.
Action News have created a broken and harrowing reflection of the world they see around them. When many are wondering how the country, or even the world, might keep things together, Failed State posits that it’s a lost cause. Time for the tear down.
Favorite song: “Failed State”
Favorite moment: the aural strobe light effect on “Dennis Wilson”
Favorite whatever else: the warning shot fired in the tense stomp on opener “Eternal Optimist” sets a perfect tone for what’s to come
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
