It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with Friendship’s Hatred.
I’ve been rewatching Neon Genesis Evangelion and bingeing on hardcore/punk and doom. Helluva combination, I know. Sometime during this point, the band Friendship starting creeping onto my daily rotation more and more. And the more I listen to this record, the more I wish I could reorganize my best of 2017 list. C’est la vie.
Hailing out of Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Friendship is a powerviolence duo that absolutely crush. Bass and drums round out the sound, along with enough contempt to bring Shinjuku to its knees. It’s powerviolence with a grinding attitude and some sludge to spare. By the time Hatred ends, you’ll see that Friendship are here for violence.
A brisk bit of feedback and some blasting drums set the mood: no bullshit, no mercy. Hell, “Rejected” run us through the motions of the rest of the record. A little snippet of everything from the blast, to the breakdown. It’s a dizzying piece of adrenaline that will wake you the hell up.
Where Hatred shines is song flow. Start to finish, Friendship blend this beast with precision. Songs are broken up just right, emphasizing heavy and fast, and constantly sounding heavy. “Dirtbags” is a track that is blasting hardcore/punk at once, but then breaks things down into the heavy. “Regiside” is another track that plays with some punkier aspects but really dives deep for its breakdown. It’s a crowd killer track.
There are tracks where Friendship keep things to the mostly down and heavy. “Corrupt” only gets the speed going later on and sticks mostly to a thick, trudging tempo. “Treason” takes the record out on a seething, slow pace that out to wreck everything with one last breath (after its initial blast). Its predecessor, “El Chapo” is much the same but with a slower pace.
Hatred is just something you need to go through a few times. The first beating just isn’t enough. Everything I spin this mammoth I find something new to love. It’s grinding, sludgy powerviolence at its most vicious. If this passed by you last year, it’s time to get on it. One of the heaviest, fastest and most pissed pieces to come out of 2017.
