Outright Tell It How It Is On New 7", 'Holler'

Outright do not at all step down on their mighty new 7", 'Holler'. [CW: topics of sexual harassment and consent discussed.]

Back in June, I spoke about the two kick-ass preview tracks from Outright's new 7", 'Holler': 'Defeat/Repeat' and 'Holler' respectively. The former saw the Melbourne hardcore legends tackling fascism in any place and under any guise, as history so often repeats itself in terms of violent and bigoted extremism. Whereas the latter, darker cut was a hefty and defiant "holler" back at casual sexual harassment and the sexism that faces so many women today by scumbags who (for some gross reason)  think they're owed so much more from the opposite sex. They were both goddamn powerful tracks, both musically and lyrically speaking; something many have come to expect from this Melbourne group.

Now that this new 7" is fully out (via Reason and Rage Records), it's a rather short but brutally sweet cruise of thrashy, metallic hardcore with plenty of strong messages to boot. In a nutshell, on 'Holler', Outright pick their collective teeth with the splinters of frail male egos, fascists, past personal lessons of failure and even sexual predators in the span of a racey, heavy 12-minutes.

Third track 'Lessons Learned' is the most melodic and menacing we've heard Outright to date, putting them alongside Melbourne peers like Pagan at times. The song itself talks of learning from our moments of wounded pride and to think before reacting to bad situations far too hastily; a solid life lesson, really. Fourth and final track 'Bleed' lays it's intent straight out from on-set with the opening lyric of "Discussion ends when he says so/Negotiation starts when she says no"; a riffy, caustic well-written track penned about the nature of consent and offered towards rapists, as well as the incels and white knights of the world who think that women always need saving and have no free will of their own. Sadly, such shitty and regressive mindsets didn't die out when the fedora stopped being an even remotely fashionable accessory over ten years ago.

Be sure to put 'Holler' directly into your ears below. It's one of the better Aussie hardcore releases of 2018, and it fucking rips!