Expire - Pendulum Swings

Expire have released their first full length, Pendulum Swings, and if you’ve listened to their Suffer The Cycle 7” you know what to expect. It’s raw, heavy and fast. The riffs melt your face into a small bubbling mess on your keyboard.  In true form, not a single track off the 12 song record is over 2 minutes in length, clocking in at measly 16 minutes long, making you think “is this a really an LP?”. Content aside, the production could’ve done with a bit more bass so your entire body spontaneously combusts under the amount of shred being shoved down your throat, but other than that, it is hard to fault.

Like with most hardcore records, the first track tends to be the “hook” of the album, the first impression of what the rest of the record is like, and keep you listening. Just Fine caught me hook line and sinker.  With no hesitation, the explosive track hits you straight in the face and keeps throwing punches, until you get a nanosecond rest between tracks, before Reputation kicks in. The theme is the complete opposite of its title, “soon enough you’ll find that life’s a fucking bitch… how much further can shit go south before I want to put a gun in my mouth?” It isn’t that uncommon for songs like this to be written, however Expire have written this with pure hatred, as evident through the track and indeed the rest of the record, helping spur on the bedroom mosh that ensued when it was replayed. 

The rest of the record follows suite, it’s quite hard trying to give you an insight into what this record’s like really, as it’s an Expire record. What else are you to expect other that riffs and drum beats that are so fast, that you literally cannot mosh fast enough. Notable tracks from the record are Abyss, YDN and Pendulum Swings, they stand out from the crowd as they include slight tweaks to their sound that work out for better rather than for worse.  On top of this, Sleep Lost, arguably one of Expires’ best track and Focus have been rerecorded, had the bass been turned up on the record as a whole, these songs would have been almost too perfect, as the re-recording quality easily outshines that of the previous STC versions, inadvertently causing my tiny brain to implode when I first heard the newly recorded intro to Sleep Lost. They both come with an even angrier vibe than before – if that is even possible.

Although it isn’t the music to suite with the summery vibe, believe you me, it is a record that will not go behind the clouds as quick as the English summer sun does.

Expires’ Pendulum Swings is out through Bridge9 records, and for those in the UK it is available on the V Revolution webstore until stocks last. Pick it up and run round your record player at 45rpm.

Miles.