ALBUM REVIEW: Internal Incarceration – Year Of The Knife

Over the last few years, US hardcore has become one of the most exciting scenes in alternative music. Countless bands have come along bringing their own twist on the sound and pushing it in fresh new directions. YEAR OF THE KNIFE were one such band, with their early EPs delivering one of the most vicious takes on hardcore. Now it’s time for them to transfer that into their first full length album.

On Internal Incarceration, YEAR OF THE KNIFE have deliver some of the most unrelenting and intense hardcore around. From the very start this is an album that grabs you and just doesn’t let go, thrashing you around and pummelling you constantly. The onslaught of riffs and beatdowns just never lets up and vocalist Tyler Mullen brings such an intensity to every song. You won’t hear many angrier performances than him on Stay Away.

For an album that is so relentlessly heavy, YEAR OF THE KNIFE manage to deliver some really catchy hooks here, the “fool me once…” part of Manipulation Artist being one of the best examples of this. There’s no real melody used but it’s just the sort of catchy vocal hook that feels designed for people to scream live as they all pile on top of each other trying to get the mic. That’s something that runs through this entire album. A lot of these songs seem crafted to just cause as much chaos at live shows as possible. Every time you think the music can’t get more violent, they drop a beatdown more vicious than the last.

The production also does a fantastic job making the album sound as violent and intense as it does. This is hardly surprising considering it’s a Kurt Ballou job. There’s an undeniable CONVERGE influence on a lot of these songs in just how ferocious they sound and Kurt does an amazing job enhancing that. The lyrics also help provide some depth to the album as YEAR OF THE KNIFE are clearly very conscious of issues people face. Addiction, mental health and coping with loss are all themes touched upon here and it does add a real human element to the rage.

The biggest problem with Internal Incarceration is that at over 30 minutes this constant bombardment might get a bit much for some listeners. The album could have benefited from either trimming the track list slightly or just having a few more changes of pace. None of the songs here are bad but constantly being beaten by this album can start to feel exhausting by the end. Tightening the album or just mixing things up a little more would have helped with that.

Still, Internal Incarceration is a strong debut full length album. For the most part YEAR OF THE KNIFE deliver on the potential they showed on the early EPs. Whilst the album does lack in variety and isn’t quite as engaging as some of the more experimental takes on hardcore in recent years, that feels like some YEAR OF THE KNIFE can work towards in future releases. For now they’ve just delivered one of the most intense hardcore records of the year and one that will no doubt go down well with fans.

Rating: 7/10

Internal Incarceration is set for release on August 7th via Pure Noise Records.

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