I'm not gonna lie, Bandit have been one of my favorite powerviolence bands since I moved to America four years ago. As a matter of fact, Bandit may have been the band who really introduced me to the genre, at least in the live setting. We don't have a lot of powerviolence going on in the French extreme music scene, at least not when I lived there.
Now, years later the group has evolved from a bunch of scruffy teenagers into a veritable force, featuring members of the recently relaunched Waking The Cadaver having performed at Maryland Deathfest, 71 Grind, and in just about every punk house on the East Coast. This isn't a bunch of try-hard pretenders but rather a group who live their lives by the ethos of "Play fast or die."
This latest offering, the absolutely punishing Warsaw, is eight tracks of some of the groups most oppressive and heavy work to date. That all being said, as tracks like "Voyeur" show us, Bandit have also used Warsaw as a way to really expand the groove elements in their sound without ever sacrificing the intensity. Chock to the brim with overpowering riffs and vocals that seem almost torn out of the bands pulsing veined frontman Gene Meyer this is a record that refuses to compromise but instead pushes its unique brand of punishing hyperspeed hardcore with greater passion than ever before.
There's a ton of raw emotion left on the table with Bandit, every track is a skull cracking assault on the senses. With every song coming at you at maximum velocity and hardly a breath for a breakdown, this is the sort of balls-out borderline terrifying powerviolence that the scene was based on. The band's ability to deliver unrelenting heaviness a la Magrudergrind is basically unmatched and their skilled almost monochromatic assault paints pictures of bleak basements and freshly shorn freaks looking for an excuse to crack your skull open. Warsaw is stripped down and brutal powerviolence at its finest.
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