All This Is

Straight outta suburban Haverhill, MA, hardcore teens Guns Up! favor a strictly old-school hardcore approach that was invented before they were born: whiplash unison riffing, screamed vocals (thankfully not in the increasingly hackneyed death grunt style that's infiltrated too many punk bands from the metal scene), and at least one slowed-down section per song for maximum moshability. Collecting all three songs from the band's debut 7" alongside six new tracks, All This Is is all streamlined efficiency, two-minute slabs of hardcore aggression bashed out with such cool precision that the album feels oddly bloodless. Songs like "How It's Done" sound like they were written to a blueprint in the same way that the most formulaic, radio-ready pop songs are, only instead of verse-chorus-verse, it's shoutalong-mosh-two step-shoutalong. The best hardcore albums have always been those which are most fearless about playing around with and expanding the genre's boundaries, but to a disappointing extent, All This Is colors within the lines.