A Perfects Murder’s debut album, Cease To Suffer was a solid slab of Hatebreed inspired hardcore that didn’t really do anything special, so it was a surprise to me, that after a switch from Goodfellow Records to Victory, APM would come out with this absolute monster of a disc.

Pure vein popping, chest swelling, boot stomping, thick-necked hardcore from Canada that vastly improves in their debut. Should you be the type of person ready to fight your own grandmother when the throbbing riffs of Hatebreed or Throwdown kick in, this is a must have for you. While certainly not re-inventing the wheel, A Perfect Murder are masters of this style of beefy jock-core, and actually have a few elements foreign to the style that give them just enough character to break them from the pack of hundred of like minded, mostly East Coast bands.

While primarily chugging along with pit inducing grooves, it’s apparent very few like minded acts could come up with either the superb instrumental ‘No Pulse in my Veins’, that’s shares a common thread with Metallica’s instrumental early pieces or subtle twists on the hardcore sounds as heard on the ‘Eye For An Eye’, ‘Slave to the Clock’, ‘Die With Regret’ and ‘Another Day, Another Plague’ that flesh out the Testament thrash influences as well as the slight Southern vibe of Pantera.

The production courtesy of Eric Rachel is spine rattling; imagine lying on a railway track as a train pass over you. The gait of the music and the massive production, especially the pounding rhythm section may cause the same effect. Sweaty and angry shouter Frank Pellerin is the bands is the bands only really ‘meh’ element ,but to the band’s credit, they avoid any kind of clean vocal trend whoring or singing, Frank just bellows the usual hardcore rants of unity, trust and general unhappiness at the world. I’d love to sit here and dissect the hard-hitting nature of tracks like the rumbling ‘Jaded’, the surprising solos and gargantuan breakdown of ‘Possessed’ or the fist pumping, tooth rattling ‘Speak Without Faith’, but to be brutally honest, this isn’t one of the albums that require my forced eloquence or long descriptions. You buy it, you throw it in the CD player, turn it up and you start break things or fighting people involuntarily. ‘Lourde A Baisez Merde!’ indeed.

Now you must excuse me, my grandmother just regained consciousness, and I must continue with the beating…

[Visit the band's website]

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