RAW NERVE:
Self-titled: LP
This is the band Raw Nerve from Chicago. I’ve been waiting for this record for a while. I heard the first 7” they put out on Video Disease and put “Teens in Heat” on about a hundred mixes. The guitars and vocals on this one (like the 7”) have tons of reverb on them and give the recording a thick feel. Most of the songs are great and hover around the thirty-second mark, but it’s one of the longer songs, “Hemlock” that stands out on the record, with a great old school all down-stroke punk beat and catchy riff. Everything else is Void or Government Issue-style hardcore with the obligatory droney-riff segment on “Skinned.” The energy is high throughout the whole record and it’s over before you have a chance to get bored with it. My only complaint about this record is that the band seems to take itself too seriously, and the lyrics try too hard to stay within the confines of some hidden artistic agenda. On the 7”, the sparse lyrics still seemed thought out and pointed, but here it feels like they are trying too hard to be mysterious and intentionally misleading. –Ian Wise (Youth Attack)