Album Review: Trash Talk - 'Eyes & Nines'

Countless tours across the globe, studio performances on Fuel TV, radio interviews, Kerrang Awards nominations, music videos in HD. No this is not Nickelback, this is Trash Talk – and what their latest release has proven is that there’s a lot more to the four-piece than a group of jamming ex-convicts and long-haired junkies. Essentially what we’re dealing with here is release number eight, or as I like to call it, the octo-spawn. ‘Eyes & Nines’: abandoning the onslaught of heavy sludge that plagued (no pun intended) their previous CD’s and boasting their traditional spices within punk/powerviolence roots. What these guys have lost in brain cells, they’ve made up for in a compelling ten-track that is both powerfully explosive and unforgiving in its complexion.

‘Eyes & Nines’ to Trash Talk is like Cerberus to Hades and his demonic gates of the Underworld; a multi-headed beast they’ve chained away only to be unleashed at the ideal moment to bite the faces off lost intruders. If you’re not ready for this, you’ll more or less get bitten in the head. Each track packs a punch, a punch of anger. Fast and relentless anger. ‘Vultures’ establishes the raw and honest feel achieved throughout the album in both its production and composition. Here, the drums are pure and refined. The vocals – ghastly, the guitars – crusty and the bass – grimy. Each ingredient is baked together and iced off with its authentic production by Joby J Ford of The Bronx, to create a perfectly layered pastry that screams “I’LL FUCKING EAT YOU” as opposed to ”eat me please”.

In more ways than one, this release seems like one that’s been significantly pondered over in its writing process. Intoxicated or not, each aspect of each track appears to have been well thought-out at the time, and mapped in a way that communicates exactly what Trash Talk were aiming for.

“Sacrament grows from shit and the friar of fungus is crowned with a mushroom cloud. Swarm like the locust. Buzz like an atom bomb.” “No one can save you now”.

Each track is consistent, each track is pummelling. The lyrics of Lee Spielman seem compiled in a method both more personally meaningful and catchy than previous releases, leaving your mind to ‘Explode’ in the time surpassing your first listen. Tracks such as ‘Explode’ feature a groovy feel previously unheard of from the group, with Matt Caughthran, vocalist of The Bronx adding his two cents and taking us to “the peaks of Mount Versuvius”. Others such as ‘Trudge’ and ‘Rabbit Holes’ demonstrate the transitions between breakneck fast chord progressions and sludgey down-tempo parts that this band has trademarked.

Trash Talk’s ten-track dynamite, ‘Eyes & Nines’ propels their status from Sacramento angsty punkers to international super-thrash kings; declaring that they deserve every promo-shot and magazine award that swarms their way. Rewinding to a more soulful, genuine punk style that undermines the spastic ten-second blitz of fury that characterised previous releases, the quartet have cemented that despite every microphone to the head, they truly do know what’s up. An honest album available in four different packages, with the option of an exclusive t-shirt, Trash Talk have given you every reason to give them and their latest release a fair go.

1. "Vultures"

2. "Flesh & Blood"

3. "Explode"

4. "Hash Wednesday"

5. "Envy"

6. "Rabbit Holes"

7. "I Do"

8. "Trudge"

9. "On a Fix"

10. "Eyes & Nines"