EP REVIEW: Primitive Desires – Jivebomb

Say what you want about hardcore but you could never accuse it of wasting your time. Rumbling their way out of the city that’s given us the likes of TURNSTILE and TRAPPED UNDER ICE, and sharing a label home with bands like SCOWL, SPEED and ZULU, Baltimore’s JIVEBOMB aren’t about to buck that trend either. Their debut EP Primitive Desires lands a little over a year after their scorching JVBM demo and somehow manages to double down on that release’s ferocity whilst squeezing the whole thing into a scant five and a half minutes.

Picking up pretty clearly where JVBM left off, Primitive Desires finds JIVEBOMB once again quite happy to drive down a road travelled by many bands before them, but their foot is so firmly on the accelerator that there really is no time to stop and complain. They’ve come back bigger and beefier, no doubt thanks to the production of Jon Markson (DRUG CHURCH, SOUL BLIND and more), with chunky grooves and sharp, scuzzy riffing anchored by no-frills, hard-hitting drum work.

After opener 86 delivers exactly that in just 38 seconds, it’s the title track and lead single which follows that sees the band reveal their secret weapon. Vocalist Kat is an absolute machine, their throat something of a ready-made distortion box as they deliver with a breathless fury over the track’s various gear changes. They remain the EP’s strongest feature throughout, elevating what those of a more negative persuasion could call quite run-of-the-mill hardcore to something altogether more urgent and aggressive. Fourth track Illusion Of Choice stands out in particular in that regard – a 48-second rager whose rip-roaring D-beats end in gloriously squealing feedback.

To be honest though, there isn’t much else to say. We’ve probably already taken up more of your time than the record itself will ask for. There might not be an original bone in Primitive Desires’ body, but what JIVEBOMB have done here is taken hardcore’s standard skeleton and given it an adamantium coating a la Wolverine so that all that remains is a feral, unkillable beast that will have no second thoughts about ripping you to shreds. There is and always will be room for bands who mess with the formula, but a record like this is a good little reminder that the formula itself exists for a reason.

Rating: 7/10

Primitive Desires is set for release on October 7th via Flatspot Records.

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