Hackjob

 

 

Hackjob is a brand new band from the Auckland area, New Zealand, featuring long-term members of the local punk scene who've already made quite a racket in numerous punk and hardcore acts in the past years, including Blame Thrower, No Brainers, Master Blaster, Shitripper, Markdown and the recent Skull Patrol.

The four kiwis very recently released a 6-track tape on Dust Up! and that's what I'm gonna write about today! 

 

 I was first of all struck by the cover artwork made by Hanna Salmon aka Daily Secretion, this gentleman is none other than Rudy Giuliani (former mayor of NYC, Trump's top lawyer and notorious piece of shit) which "trashy" sci-fi portrait is simply "beautiful". It reminds me a bit of some the illustrations which could be seen in the old Métal Hurlant (and its US counterpart Heavy Metal) magazines some decades ago.

 

But let's get back to the music:

Hackjob is in line with recent fast and concise punk/hardcore bands with female front vocals like Haircut, Cold Meat, Freon, Rut and many others.  

Hackjob's music is simple and straight forward (but not simplistic at all) with a pinch of old school heaviness and truckloads of energy... in one word: effective!

Upfront vocals in a hardcore punk mix can be a risky bet... vocals are probably going to grab first listeners' attention, so it's a hit-or-miss. 

Mariana's singing doesn't sound so raw and throaty (for a hardcore band), and gives a "fresh" touch of lighter kind of punk rock to the band's songs, and I like it. I got the feeling that she hasn't reached her full energy potential though and will be able to deliver "more" in the future.

Some powerful screamed backup vocals come to support her in a very effective way on a few tracks.

Note the atypical Bike Song, which lyrics are in Bulgarian and is meant to be a motivational song for all Bulgarian cycling punks facing a nasty hill.

Ok what else ?

Did I forget to say it's a good EP ?

 

Fast and aggressive bass lines, ripping fast drum patterns, perfectly mastered hardcore guitar parts... but also a few great "touches" that demonstrate the band's musical writing skills, like the early west-coast hardcore guitar "thing" on L.S.R (damn I don't know how to describe it) for example but also a lot of little extra "touches" which give a lot of "depth" to the songs (you know what I mean).

  A debut EP like this one can only be a promise for more (and better and better) stuff very soon!

You can listen to Hackjob on Rien à Faire #19.

 

 

 

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