Personal Damage: Violent Ritual 7"
Violent Ritual is the third EP from Los Angeles’s Personal Damage, originally released on a small run of self-released cassettes in 2022 and now upgraded to vinyl courtesy of Sorry State. Violent Ritual offers five tracks of Personal Damage’s trademark snot-fueled, short-fast-and-loud hardcore punk, the longest track clocking in at a mere 80 seconds. While the songs are short, they’re hardly insubstantial, packing albums worth of excitement into each delicately constructed and tightly wound composition. Pedal-to-the-floor fast parts are punctuated by Lucky Lehrer-style rhythmic inventions, each song building toward a climactic guitar solo and/or call-and-response chorus. While so many contemporary hardcore bands de-emphasize the vocals, they’re Personal Damage’s most potent weapon, with all three members contributing to the dynamic vocal arrangements and every track offering a chance to shout along. While the first four tracks blazes at early Gang Green velocities, the closing “Banned from Society” stretches things out ever so slightly with a classic SoCal rhythm and the record’s most anthemic vocal. Violent Ritual is the most potent dose yet from one of the 2020s’ most exciting hardcore punk bands.
Violent Ritual is the third EP from Los Angeles’s Personal Damage, originally released on a small run of self-released cassettes in 2022 and now upgraded to vinyl courtesy of Sorry State. Violent Ritual offers five tracks of Personal Damage’s trademark snot-fueled, short-fast-and-loud hardcore punk, the longest track clocking in at a mere 80 seconds. While the songs are short, they’re hardly insubstantial, packing albums worth of excitement into each delicately constructed and tightly wound composition. Pedal-to-the-floor fast parts are punctuated by Lucky Lehrer-style rhythmic inventions, each song building toward a climactic guitar solo and/or call-and-response chorus. While so many contemporary hardcore bands de-emphasize the vocals, they’re Personal Damage’s most potent weapon, with all three members contributing to the dynamic vocal arrangements and every track offering a chance to shout along. While the first four tracks blazes at early Gang Green velocities, the closing “Banned from Society” stretches things out ever so slightly with a classic SoCal rhythm and the record’s most anthemic vocal. Violent Ritual is the most potent dose yet from one of the 2020s’ most exciting hardcore punk bands.
Description
Violent Ritual is the third EP from Los Angeles’s Personal Damage, originally released on a small run of self-released cassettes in 2022 and now upgraded to vinyl courtesy of Sorry State. Violent Ritual offers five tracks of Personal Damage’s trademark snot-fueled, short-fast-and-loud hardcore punk, the longest track clocking in at a mere 80 seconds. While the songs are short, they’re hardly insubstantial, packing albums worth of excitement into each delicately constructed and tightly wound composition. Pedal-to-the-floor fast parts are punctuated by Lucky Lehrer-style rhythmic inventions, each song building toward a climactic guitar solo and/or call-and-response chorus. While so many contemporary hardcore bands de-emphasize the vocals, they’re Personal Damage’s most potent weapon, with all three members contributing to the dynamic vocal arrangements and every track offering a chance to shout along. While the first four tracks blazes at early Gang Green velocities, the closing “Banned from Society” stretches things out ever so slightly with a classic SoCal rhythm and the record’s most anthemic vocal. Violent Ritual is the most potent dose yet from one of the 2020s’ most exciting hardcore punk bands.
