You can take a kid out of punk, but you can’t take punk out of a kid, and Jonah Jenkins is a prime example. As the vox of some truly great Boston-based underground bands (Milligram, Miltown, and Only Living Witness to name a few), Jenkins resurfaces at the helm of Raw Radar War. The oddly-titled == is half abrasive metallic punk à la early Napalm Death, and half Black Flag-waving hardcore that Jenkins has worshipped his whole life.

There are three basic tempos here: breakneck aggro, mid-paced filth-core, and molasses-styled doom sludge, all executed with maximum fuzz and panache. The first speed includes the title track “Double Equals,” “Greed Redux,” “Lack of Fire Discipline,” “Riven Tarmac,” and “Supreme Truth.” Charles Corey’s cavernous bass completely swallows “Vampire Command,” while “TV Death” and “Your Prime Directive” invoke Extreme Noise Terror.

The middle ground is covered by “Never Forgive Action” and the amazing “Rupture,” the latter of which parallels the heads-down death of Dismember or Pentacle. This track bleeds into the club-footed crawl of “Process,” and “Truckloads of Ammunition” closes out the album with eight minutes of prolonged agony. There’s even a cover of Jerry’s Kids’ “Crucify Me” that’ll have fans scrambling for their old S.O.D. albums anew.

Jenkins has also packaged the disc in a quad-fold digipak, screen-printed in metallic silver art like Sunn0))) or Khanate. Pure hate for basement bars and sketchy-neighborhood house parties, RRW brandish hardcore that’s germane to the temper of the times without being trendy, influencing new haircuts for the cool kids, or flaunting endorsements for street clothing.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments