ALBUM REVIEW: West Side Horizons – Despise You

When was the last time you, as a listener woke up one morning, and made the decision that this morning’s listening was going to consist of 62 tracks of powerviolence? If you haven’t made that choice, why ever not? If you struggled to find anything that would suit that mould, DESPISE YOU have got you covered. Originally released in 1999, and compiling all of the tracks from the numerous splits, EPs and unreleased tracks, West Side Horizons is a complete catalogue of disgracefully aggressive powerviolence.

This is real mammoth release, and is an essential for any person with a passion for powerviolence. The longest track on the collection is just over two minutes, with most songs not even touching the one minute mark. The attack is short and sharp, with the muddy tone of the guitars being delivered with many a punch to the face. However, when the group decide to develop their work away from the all out attack of a majority of their songs, we are rewarded by tracks like Burning In Hell (POSSESSED) which has a beatdown that will initiate the flying of fists and the cracking of skulls.

The lyrical content goes to show why at one point, DESPISE YOU were seen by some as ‘the angriest band in the world’, with their lyrical content raging on the topics of gang violence, self hatred and misanthropy. 

This is a great little reissue, and has a place in the collections of those listeners who like their powerviolence dirty and unabashedly violent. For fans of more modern day bands like NAILS, HELPLESS and TRASH TALK, one can really see the influence that a group like DESPISE YOU had on their scene, and how their legacy lives on. 

Rating: 7/10

West Side Horizons is out now via Tankcrimes Records.

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