Snub - Memories in Richter (Copro Records)

Snub play a bastard hybrid of Nu-Metal and Hardcore, and quite a noisy racket it is too. This is the first full length album from this 5 piece from Bournemouth, England, following the success of their debut mini '360 Degree Conviction' last year. They have played with the likes of Napalm Death, Iron Monkey (R.I.P.) and One Minute Silence, so you immediately know what to expect. Opener and title track 'Memories in Richter' snarls like a bulldog, 'Arson' bludgeons you senseless whilst 'Raping Angels' gleefully laughs whilst pissing on your grave.

So far so good? Actually, no. You see, the problem with this is that for all Choff's gnashing of teeth and the crunching riffs of Simon Smith and Ian Field-Richards to these ears at least it's all been done before, and, unfortunately for SNUB, a lot better too. Their 'spine-chillingly heavy hardcore' (it sez here) means well, and this crisp production courtesy of Dave Chang will certainly win them a lot of young fans, but I can't help thinking that a little more originality could possibly lift them from the struggling glut of cloned Nu-Metal bands clogging up the cesspool of extreme music today.

by Ken McBlek