ALBUM REVIEW: Culture Of Death – Planet On A Chain

PLANET ON A CHAIN is a legacy just as much as it is a band. Being in their respective scenes since the late 90s the quintet carry the hardcore punk ethos with them to this day, and on their new record Culture Of Death it shines. Instead of shining, it’s more like storming a castle, or taking a body shot from a heavyweight boxer. They make it obvious what they’re all about. If the title alone isn’t enough to give it away, the up in your face and direct lyricism will.

Culture Of Death is tight, maybe too tight. While that makes for ridiculously powerful music, it can’t help but feel like PLANET OF A CHAIN have put a few too many restraints on the album’s structure, ironically. There’s few moments of looseness where you can feel the music and find the inner grooves; Whole and Kingsnake welcome you closer to the band. It’s possible, if only briefly, to get a glimpse of their defenceless image. 

Luckily that pace and tense approach builds momentum and hurls them forward like a fastball, Moses Saarni’s drums are enough alone to put you through an unknowing cardio workout, Brian Stern’s riffs take aim and give the seething aggression of the record direction, rounded off with Dave Ackerman’s defiant vocals. Despite having that early hardcore sound about them, PLANET ON A CHAIN are firmly in the here and now, there’s nothing more senile sounding than yelling about benign non issues of hardcore’s past. 

The overarching themes of being stuck under corporate thumb, earning pennies whilst someone else rakes in the big money, or even being so unconscious to the world around you that you don’t see those issues, slap the unwilling to listen around the face until they see what’s real. Title track Culture Of Death sums it up in a way that could sear the skin off your face, Ackerman refuses to butcher the sentiment in his lyrics “A sales pitch that no one asked for, the product? is you, and what you’ve got in store. you’re embedded in a culture of death, act like it isn’t, it’s a culture of death.”

It’s great to have such bold emotion and meaning behind your music, but that can only carry it so far, the sonics should match each of those stories that you’re telling, because whilst exciting, once you’ve heard the a few tracks from the record, you’ve heard them all. That tightness comes back to haunt them, PLANET ON A CHAIN don’t know how to slow down, not even a bit, why would a hardcore punk band want to slow down, that’s the point isn’t it? You might ask. Well otherwise, all of the really great parts of Culture Of Death get burnt out before the runtime is over. 

Rating: 6/10

Culture Of Death is out now via Revelation Records.

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