ALBUM REVIEW: Free Us From Existence – Concrete

CONCRETE definitely embody the righteous rage of hardcore better than most. Whilst their sound doesn’t necessarily match the punk rock influences from their home city, the band take the attitude and hardman status to new levels with their newest release, bleakly titled Free Us From Existence. Where the band made an impact with their debut Everything Ends Now, the intention of the follow up seems to be a bigger and more brutal beatdown than the one before, resulting in an even larger impact. 

The opening moments of Executing Vengeance make this point obviously clear. The sound is faster, harder, and clearly influenced by genres ranging from death metal to slam this time round. The guitar tones sound brighter but still retain the distinct sound of the debut, but it’s in the machine gun drums that the real change is felt. Leaping from blast beats from the opening moments of the album through to blistering fast snare rolls on Path of Fire, the drums are an absolute standout through the record and play a huge hand in how hard the record hits in general. 

Whilst CONCRETE are clearly out to make an impact when it comes to the hardcore buffness of their album, but they definitely take notes from the New York City hardcore legends. They inject moments of clear mosh fuel, riding danceable drum beats that eventually clatter in chugging breakdowns. The death metal influence seeps through thanks to massively chugging tracks like Psychological Crucifixion proving that CONCRETE take as many notes from bands like OBITUARY as they do their genre fellows. It gives the record a deeper feel to it, making up for the moments on Everything Ends Now that felt particularly one note. It’s a bit of a testament to a band making progressions with their own sound with ferocious success. 

Alongside the great sense of hit and run that’s felt throughout the record, with no song staying too late but also sticking around to dish out copious right hooks, Free Us From Existence runs at a pretty steady pace. Parasites provides a nice final quarter slow down and further shows the band to have a diverse influence stream with the sludgy guitars and headbanging drum beat making the song a genuine ripper with a fantastic climax. The ending of the album is perhaps the one song that stands out. Taking a leaf from MALEVOLENCE’s book, Apthotic Mirror aims to go down a more epic route with a final guitar solo that doesn’t quite follow the previous minutes of lethal chugging as well as it could do.

Despite the potentially botched ending, there is little to bad-mouth about Free Us From Existence, and the record shows how much potential CONCRETE are currently playing with. The record is a genuine progressive step from the foundations of the band’s debut, and the additions to the sound do nothing but make CONCRETE a more lethal music entity. This record is made up of seven, brutally excellent beatdown songs that take influences from as far as black metal and as close to home as 80’s hardcore. It’s a heavy hitting but thoroughly excellent record from a band that seem poised to make tidal waves in the scene. 

Rating: 8/10

Free Us From Existence is out now via Black Voodoo Records and Blood Blast Distribution.

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