Tinnitus – Volume II – Cricket Cemetery

Before I dig into this new Tinnitus 7”, I want to take a moment and preach to the 12-15 of you that may actually read this.  I ordered this Tinnitus 7” back in January from Cricket Cemetery along with a pre-order for the new Jarhead Fertilizer.  The order took a few months to get here and somewhere along the line there was a mix up and the pressing that I originally ordered was no longer available.  It’s DIY, things happen.  In lieu of the mix up, Cricket Cemetery went completely out of their way to make it up by sending me a couple of their other releases, a tape, some patches, and some stickers.  They even contacted me to make sure that was ok with me, which they totally didn't have to do.  So this is just a reminder, to myself as well, that there are some really cool people out there that are doing this and that you should go out and buy a record…from CricketCemetery (or any other DIY band or label).

Now that I’ve emo’d up the place, this would be a good time to talk about Tinnitus – Volume II as it’s an absolute paralyzing blow of Massachusetts d-beat sprinkled hardcore.  Hailing from Worcester, MA, Tinnitus appropriately follow-up their 2011 3^rd round stoppage due to strikes, Gehenna, with Volume II out on Cricket Cemetery.  Tinnitus brings a plus blend of fast hardcore, powerviolence, and a slowed down d-beat/doom groove; all stuffed into one minute packages of fuck you.  The formula on Volume II is similar to what you heard on Gehenna.  I’m talking feedback intro to choppy mid-paced groove, blast into fast hardcore and shift back down into doom-ish mosh grooves.  Consistent mid-range barks add to the aggressiveness of Tinnitus’ brand of hardcore.  Gehenna sounded a little more straight up to my ear, while Volume II takes what they laid down and refines it a bit.  Highlights on Volume II for me are "File"; blasting snare intro to creepy crawl down tuned groove, wound up into pissed, blasting hardcore shifted quickly down into 30 seconds of pure beatdown chugs.  "Infliction" on the b-side is another standout.  Fast hardcore out of the gate, breakdown tease at the 0:25 mark, only to speed back up before the bottom falls out with a classic bass led mosh groove.

On Volume II, Tinnitus highlight just how good the Boston area hardcore is along with Draize and Suffer On Acid.  The production on Volume II stands out as well, this thing jumps off the vinyl loud as fuck and is one of my favorite records of 2014 to this point.  Get your shit together and check it out now.