Cerebral Ballzy- Self Titled- Cooking Vinyl

If you can get past the laughable name, Cerebral Ballzy may be your gateway into hardcore. They’re raucous; energetic and generally don’t give a fuck. They hark back to a simpler time when songs could pack the most visceral and jaw dropping venom in under a minute, and as if to prove something,  their fast paced fury decimates their 12 song debut album in under 20 minutes ( 19.4 minutes to be precise). So while it seems like most 20-something guys got into punk music through bands like Blink 182 and NOFX, Cerebral Ballzy it seems, were instead living on a diet of hardcore’s finest.

Cerebral Ballzy’s debut album is neither sophisticated nor “artsy”, their lyrics hardly go deeper than getting laid or getting pizza, but they don’t care.  So upon listening to this album, forget you’ve ever heard Laura Marling’s “Night Terror”, forget that you actually quite like Blink 182 “What’s My Age Again” because Cerebral Ballzy are taking you into their corner of the ring, a place where they call the shots and  pack the most lethal punches.

They quite clearly take cues from hardcore’s biggest heroes Black Flag and Minor Threat, but unlike those bands, they’re concerned little with the political landscape to which they find themselves. Songs like “Don’t Tell Me What To Do” are chaotic and direct, one doesn’t have to understand lead vocalist Honour Titus to get what he’s saying, the clues in the title. “On the Run” is a defiant snarling statement of alienation“I’m just a young kid doing what I want. I don’t want to be like them, I refuse to be like them” If there was to be a message for this album this would be it, there is something extremely admirable in a band so willing to do it their way and their way alone.

So, if you want a quick adrenaline rush of ferocity, with all the styling’s of a party band, but don’t want the political hangover that comes with investing time into  80’s hardcore bands. Then this is your band.

6/10

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For more infomation head to: http://cerebralballzy.com/