Spectreview: SLANT – 1집

Released: February 26, 2021

Rock
(Hardcore Punk)

-PURPLE-

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The hardcore tag that bands like Minor Threat instantiated in the early 80’s has evolved so thoroughly that the term more often signifies an intent, or an appending, than an actual sound. South Korean band Slant, however, aim to take it right back to its origins on their debut LP, released on Seattle punk label Iron Lung Records. 1집 (translated: “Album 1”) is a violent, succinct, hooky blast of noise that not only recalls but summons those economical hardcore bands of the past, and that has as much to do with the way it’s produced as the likely hours of practice it took to nail its feel.

From the get-go, what you hear is what you get: “Enemy” starts at a 10 and then lurches into an 11, with vocalist Yeji laying the opportunistically righteous to waste in a full-throated hurricane. If you dig that track, chances are you’ll dig the rest. Classic hardcore thrives on its uniformity, controlling for any variables that might distract from the sharp needle driving into your skull. And so we get the frustrated ennui of “Stagnation,” the fallacy of hero worship in “Effigy,” the insidious cruelty of sick men in “Violent Minds,” the vapid hole of the content creation machine in “Modern Addictions”: the list goes on. 

Though it might be coincidence, drummer Garrett Belair’s ties to the Boston hardcore scene come through here. The way he mixes his own instrument – in how the drums retain their punchiness without the trebly snap you hear in modern production jobs – lends a classic feel to the band’s backbone. Same goes for the guitars: vicious but still bearing warmth, as if designed for vinyl.

What makes Slant hit so hard is the degree to which they capture the elements that made hardcore’s original bands so alluring, both sonically and substantively. Resultantly, 1 집 makes for an auspicious debut full-length, one that may allow the band to find a newly-widened transcontinental audience.

Recommended for slamming bodies.