I hate it when a band slips by me that I later end up jocking like fuck. Earlier this year I took a sabbatical from the internet. I’d just started at University and was working a pretty heavy job full time so in a rare act of maturity I decided I needed to knuckle down and focus on hitting the grades I’d set for myself. I get really easily distracted so decided to jib off twitter and Instagram and all the other stuff I spend far too much time sitting on trying to make shit jokes. Anyway turns out I’m sweet as fuck at schoolwork and upon my triumphant return to the internet discovered I’d missed out on a lot of new music. A lot of it sucked but then I happened upon Outrage CC………

This band is comprised of members of Ironclad and (I think) Wardogs, who were both waving the flag for the burgeoning Cardiff City hardcore scene in the late 00’s. Both of those bands were inspired by classic NY Hardcore as well as a healthy dose of the good stuff coming out of Boston in the early part of the decade like Right Brigade, Stop & Think etc.

So with all that said Outrage CC feels like a somewhat different animal. It’s leaner and harder and it bares its fucking teeth like a mangy dog that has been smacked around by life and learned to hate the hand that occasionally throws it a bone. They still maintain elements of the rugged Boston Hardcore staples but they are closer to the death march drudge of Think I Care than the bounce of the LOC… and then welds it all to a cast iron framework of vintage filthy Clevo Hardcore.

Quick aside: For some folk Clevo is a bit of dirty word that brings to mind punisher beard melts getting weird at an Integ show in 2013 or just plain old wigger bum like One Life Crew post CRS. I can understand those thoughts if you are basing your opinion on the latter day output or are simply arriving late in the game but let me tell you, the In Contrast Of Sin 7” era Integ is hard as absolute fuck. No long winded intros, no esoteric trappings….just that bleak sense of brooding violence and urban horror, tough lyrics about revenge and straight edge and choking people with chains. I spent a long time listening to this record in my formative years and along with Chorus and Judge, it gave me what I needed to get through a difficult period of my life and shaped a lot of my tastes and perspectives. So say what you will but that shit will always seem so cool to me. It’s not up for discussion and I don’t care about your opinion.

Anyhow, I’m convinced Outrage CC have spent a few high and boozy evenings around the ouija board and somehow summoned the shade of A-Double. Those mid song pipe-swinging build up/breakdowns into hard/fast dynamics are flawless and sound like they could have been cribbed straight from the Melnick playbook. Also worth noting and (key when putting together a legit sounding band of this style) is that weird squelchy guitar tone. Again, nailed with a scholars ear. It’s like they’ve strip mined all the hard parts out of the early releases in a similar way to old Connecticut hardcore bands like Fear Tomorrow or Dead Wrong did and made awesome one and half minute punk songs out of’em. Tom’s ragged vocals borrow less from Dwid’s belicose rasp and owe more to the hoarse desperation of a man running out of places to turn that we heard from George Hirsch on Our Youth Is Wasted. There’s plenty of tasty distorted bass lead parts driving headfirst into the hard riffs (that I hope are played by a bassist as surly looking as Young Len) and that cool tumbling tom drum buildup in the middle of Scars straight up makes me want to kill.

There’s always been plenty bands playing with aspects of the Integrity sound/aesthetic, but most tend to draw from the more accomplished end of the catalog so it’s particularly refreshing to hear the early raw violence (that word again) in its pure form being explored. Outrage don’t mess about creating mood and ambience. They just explode like a dead eyed war veteran with a hair trigger and go straight for the throat with the kinda seething hardcore punk that can only be created by people gnawing on the bones of life. Plus I saw a video of them opening with a Danzig intro and another with an In Control cover. Perfect taste.

I don’t front when it comes to this shit, if I was still doing a record label I’d be asking this band to do a 7” right fucking now.

Church Of Fuck released the demo tape, it’s long gone but Wrap the chain round your throat HERE