Album Evaluate
Hack Job
Hexbridge Youth Crew
(Pea Mind / CBRG / DTR / Rip Roaring Shit Storm)
7″ | DL | Streaming
Out 3 October 2025
A brand new providing from grindcore and energy violence exponents Hack Job sees them step down a gear barely to ship up some prime gnarly metal-tinged punk. Horror fiction mingles with actual world actuality checks with humour by no means far-off says Nathan Brown.
Hack Job are mates of mine and all the time a welcome addition to any gig on the SoutHCoast DIY HC scene. Now that this 3 piece is separated by 400 odd miles with competing work and life commitments, we now have to be affected person. We could not get to see them usually – or hear new recordings – however after we do it’s well worth the wait.
They’ll all the time be relied upon to deliver a little bit of humour, satire, biting political commentary and customary sense into the grind and energy violence scene which is all too usually hostage to bizarre macho bullshit (see their music “Porngrind go fuck your self” on the break up with Hooked On Christ as exhibit one). Additionally they LOVE horror, sci-fi and fantasy movies (test the quilt picture taken from Blood On Devil’s Claw) and HATE faith. They usually actually do have a knack for phrase play which makes all of it much more enjoyable.
The Hack Job expertise is usually brief bursts of quick, intense noise (and in a stay state of affairs all the time punctuated by an appreciative cheer from the assembled lots). On this outing they’ve gone virtually prog with songs over a minute lengthy. Though there may be nonetheless a contact of grind core and energy violence to the overall assault, this assortment of songs is a bit longer and extra, dare I say it, tuneful. It’s nonetheless uncooked. They nonetheless swap between heavy sections and blisteringly quick sprints, however you could have the time to settle into the tempo.
This offers this EP the texture of the quick UK hardcore popping out on labels like Flat Earth within the 90s and the noisier and sooner punk bands of the mid-late 80s that may be granted a Peel Session. From the heady days of Heresy, ENT, Chaos UK via to each band that Sned performed in (a reference misplaced on anybody outdoors of the DIY punk scene). For these punk rockers of a sure age in the event you preferred the Sedition/Pink Turds In House break up album this will likely be proper up your alley (sure, I hear parts of either side).
Each faces of this 7″ EP are simply over 5 minutes, suffering from illustrative and amusing samples, so that they’ve pushed proper up in opposition to the bodily constraints of what you’ll be able to match on a small slab of vinyl at 45rpm (33rpm usually decreasing the standard).
However sufficient in regards to the music. What are they grunting and screaming about? Hack Job flip between singing about fantasy and actuality, with some songs leaving a foot in every camp. By referencing the make consider and the macabre they maintain up a mirror to the absurdity of actual life. Their tongue in cheek humour makes being pissed off on the world enjoyable.
From my analysis the opener Hexbridge Youth Crew appears to be a reference to fantasy fiction. Following up solely Hack Job might have a music about The Torment of Edward Mordake – the topic is an city legend, born within the nineteenth century because the inheritor to an English peerage with a face in the back of his head. This completely sums up their twisted humour and curiosity within the weird.
The day by day grind (versus the grind core) will get a glance in on Punched and Bored. No, not followers of labor. Dilligas that its an acronym for Does It Look Like I Give A Shit. Sort of does what it says on the tin within the spirit of “two digits rampant” punk.
Planet Of The Apers exhibits the Hack Job wordplay at work. They’re Coming To Get You Barbara is a component tribute to The Night time of The Dwelling Useless, and half actual politik – as they level out, there are real monsters in the true world. The Hack Job boys additionally fess as much as their shared love of function play video games in Full Frontal Nerdity. The observant will discover the “D20” facet to the document. For the uninitiated that’s a 20 sided die, as utilized by function gamers throughout the globe.
Conspiracy To Defraud exhibits their contempt for conspiracy theorists who misdirect whereas the wealthy get on with ripping us all off in plain sight. Regardless of the annoyance they preserve their sense of humour with couplets like “Failing to separate fiction from truth. Flinching at phantoms in your tin foil hat”. Nice stuff. Lyrically their acquainted disdain for the hate and cash grubbing by organised faith is current in Black Gap (with a prolonged evangelical pattern) and Jesus Christ Superstore – which will get high marks for the music title alone.
Phantom Limb captures the frustration of getting to place up with “in poor health aimed leaden jokes” combating the overwhelming want to punch somebody’s lights out. Certainly we’ve all felt that? Chat Shit, Get Banged because the youth say.
This EP is an brisk burst of humour and ire mixing fantasy with actuality that ought to depart you with a smile in your face in the event you like quick hardcore punk rock with a lick of steel. Did I point out the white vinyl?
The bodily format is out on third October, out there from the band by way of bandcamp.
Discover Hack Job on Fb.
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Phrases by Nathan Brown. You possibly can learn extra from Nathan on his Louder Than Warfare archive over right here.
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