CRIME hammers out a tribal thunderstorm of aggro rapcore on this demo, which was produced by GGGarth Richardson (Kittie, Rage Against The Machine) and comes filled with turntable wizardry, grating guitar riffs and throaty raps. CRIME spits his piece like a reptile spits venom and with a past career in the seminal underground band, L.U.N.G.S., he's got the credibility to back it up. Vocally the album features raspy, hoarse vocals that range from introspective to aggravated which come off like a cross between Downset. and Biohazard as he mixes hardcore bursts of chant styled choruses with verses laced with vehement rapcore intensity. Like a pitbull, he locks his jaw on the tracks deep grooves and shows no remorse as he fires off rapid rhymes, scantly breaking tone to shove out the choruses, all the while rarely sacrificing his aggression and militant attitude, except for a few moments when the rap based tracks are in full bloom. Guitars chug along with heavy groove and a deadpan tuning that keeps the momentum, while squealing out fills and carving out jagged riffs. Bass saunters through funk ideals when called for and affixes itself tightly to the guitar, creating pressure and swooping through with sliding rumbles that give the tracks a decidedly hip hop feel. Drums hold their ground with well timed snare hits and an impressive amount of variation that keeps the pace rapid like a percussive stopwatch. Some tribal tom rolls are thrown in to thicken out the mixture while booming 808 hits quake the foundations, boosting the hip hop presence within the groups creations. Turntables are sparse, but tend to stick themselves out feet first with mature scratches that draw from a friendly ground based in between experimental and old school. As a whole, the music isn't exactly blazing into new territory, but it is done with passion and there's a lot of promise shown, particularly on the track "Culture Shock" which has an ethnic vibe to it that is tossed in with a ruggedly weathered release of rage. While the first track indeed does show promise, the music begins to simmer off to a more timid pace as the CD progresses on, and as the lyrics turn from a moralistic standpoint to topics more akin to a stereotypical rapper,it can feel a bit diluted and lacks the punch that the tracks featuring more fiery content possess. CRIME has a strong sound, kicking out rhymes with authority and a backing band that showcases variety as they construct everything from dense rapcore to smoothed back gangsta rap, but the contrast between the two is night and day and as such the demo remains a mixed bag, but once a focused direction is chosen and the group applies itself to it, there's no doubt they could become serious contenders.
(3.5 / 5)