EP REVIEW: All My Angels – Speed
Arguably there are few modern bands that embody the spirit of hardcore better than Aussie wrecking crew SPEED. Through constant touring globally and documenting scenes often underserved by international bands, they’ve not only built a name for themselves, but uplifted a score of bands that deserve the attention. They’ve done all that because they love hardcore through and through, something they made abundantly clear on scorching debut album Only One Mode, released last year on Flatspot Records.
This year, they’re back, perhaps sooner than expected, with the three-track EP All My Angels, a collection of songs informed first by tragedy and loss, but then shaped and refined by love and camaraderie. After the loss of a few of their close friends in a short timespan, the band and their local scenes keenly felt the loss; instead of writing about this, though, SPEED chose to channel the message of the positive impact their friends had and left behind both on the band and, again, their communities.
Opener Ain’t My Game kicks into high gear from the very outset, deriding fakery and reiterating their core values of loyalty and loving unconditionally, vocalist Jem Siow barking “my loyalty lies where my heart and values meet”. As we’ve come to expect from the Aussies, it’s a bruising, two-stepping ripper of a track and packs a huge amount of riffs into its three minute runtime. Its off-kilter bass riff underscoring verses prepares the ground for the the roars of “miss me with your fantasy” that follow as they take aim at those using others for their own ends.
Peace rampages out the gates at a thousand miles an hour and you can practically hear the fists swinging in the pit. Instead of keep that pace though, after a very brief moment of ambience they lock into a huge groove that carries them through to the closing chant of “gang called SPEED” – because it wouldn’t be a hardcore record if they didn’t get the name in at least once, and it rules.
The title track are some of the most vulnerable they’ve penned, a contrast to the classic hardcore heft they bring to bear so well. Lamenting the heartbreak of losing close friends in tragic circumstances, SPEED still find a way to showcase the love they hold for their friends, Siow singing “My heart keeps breaking, but I won’t let go / All my angels, irreplaceable.” Delivered with the hardcore bite of the band, it makes for a fitting tribute from the band that have put community and love for it at the heart of what they do.
This isn’t SPEED reinventing the wheel or evolving sonically, at least not much. What it is, though, is more SPEED that as ever, comes from a very real, caring place, and it’ll make you want to run through walls.
Rating: 8/10
All My Angels is out now via Flatspot Records.
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