Love them or hate them, it’s hard to escape the influence of Trash Talk. The UK has seen them lay waste to all kinds of venues since they started touring here (we’ve seen them do everything from cupboard to big festival stages), and though their live show has been often emulated it’s never been outdone in terms of sheer eye-raising moments where you’re not sure if vocalist Lee Spielman has gone a bit too far.
The band have lost none of the urgency found on ‘Eyes & Nines’ and ‘119’ on ‘No Peace’, and with ‘Cloudkicker’ the band manage to bring new elements to their sound without breaking a sweat – at three minutes long, ‘Cloudkicker’ is also the longest track on the record – released again through Odd Future Records.
With ‘No Peace’, Trash Talk really seem to have found their sweet spot. ‘No Peace’ feels cohesive without ever feeling restrained, and easily contains some of their best work to date. Tracks like ‘Monochrome’, ‘Locked Skin’ and ‘The Hole’ bring the very best of F-Minus to mind, but it’s almost unfair to compare them to closely to anyone as the Sacramento band stand without too many peers in 2014 (largely as a lot of modern US hardcore bands seem obsessed with genre mashing rather than doing the basics well). ‘No Peace’ is full of effortless, throwdown hardcore, and though the band really aren’t for everyone it’s hard to deny the quality on display here.
TOM AYLOTT