Dead Friends 46
Hardcore
(Rank-n-File Records)

Pull up your big girl panties, open your ears, and chomp down on Dead Friends 46’s new album Hardcore. This Cali hardcore 5-piece is taking no prisoners in the blistering 11 tracks they offer up. From Sean McGuire’s high-end bass trilling on opener “The Firm,” where vocalist/shouter Don Mazza claims his outfit “has come to fight,” to the slashing power chord attack-of-one’s-enemies assault of “Rise Up,” (great noisy lead playing here from Shaun Andri here), one is in for a penny, in for a pounding with Dead Friends 46.

Drummer Andy Spraker snaps us into “Banned From the Pubs,” a tune I just adore. I love the constant refrain (growl) of the title and, once again, the band’s break-neck abilities…this one is almost punk ‘pop,’ I dare say. Again Andri slips in with perfectly placed lead, even leading his guitar into an English police siren at one point.

Deeper into the mix we get even wilder rides, like the relentless “Blood Clot,” it’s just pure balls-to-the-walls punk angst. The jumpy “Lady Doom,” (again with lots of background vocal shouting), another commercial pop tune “Black Eyeliner (April Harvey)” where we once again get Dead Friends 46 saying something with a little meat…referencing a murder case with this one.

Hardcore ends with the song “Dead Friends,” another hard cutting, straight-in-the-gut wish to see someone dead.

Dead Friends 46 do punk so good on Hardcore.