Oh Canada! Hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Last Laugh recently released a cassette on No Control Records. Aaron from the label was awesome enough to send me a copy for review, so I've been jamming to this one for the past couple days. Black pro tapes with black and white sticker labels, and a black and white screened insert in a plastic case are the eye candy on this baby.
Eight songs in less than seven minutes. When I say this five piece powerhouse isn't wasting any time, I really mean it. While for many bands this means playing blurring grind songs or powerviolence worship, Last Laugh mix in some different ingredients to keep themselves from sounding like a complete Infest rip off. Of course, there's still some strong influences coming from that era, but they aren't afraid to toss in some stomping breakdowns in between dizzyingly quick chord changes.
Super heavy distortion reminiscent of Dropdead reaches near fuzz-like levels during the songs, giving them a slightly metally edge throughout the tape. While songs like "No Idols" and "Hickkk" are complete blistering ragers, other tracks such as "Nowhere Near" or "Stranglehold" contain surprisingly infectious mid-tempo breaks. The vocals are pretty clear as well, making it somewhat easy to follow along with the angst-ridden lyrics. Even though Disarray is only about seven minutes long in the first place, the variations keep people guessing about as much as possible for their chosen style, resulting in a super short listen.
While they might write a pretty common style, Last Laugh pull this off better than some of their contemporaries, mixing in just enough attributes of hardcore, thrash, and punk to keep things interesting. The download link is directly from the label with lyrics and art included, so if you enjoy it as much as I did, please pick up a copy. Four bucks, limited to 100, you know the deal.
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Last Laugh
No Control Records and Distro
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