Masakari Eden Compromised EP Review

Masakari Eden Compromised EP Review

By: Stephen Tompkins

Close your eyes and imagine that His Hero is Gone and Amebix got together and had a child… got it? Ok, now imagine that that child grows up in a dank room full of teenage angst, listening to nothing but Death Side and Disfear

records until he is 21 years-old. Now open your eyes and what you have

is Masakari, a crust punk band from Cleveland, Ohio—not to be confused

with the crusties you see on St. Marks, who ask you for cigarettes and

your leftover pizza. And in case you are wondering, Masakari got its moniker from a Japanese battle axe used by warrior monks, a fitting name for this bestial group.

The band’s debut 7” EP, Eden Compromised will be released April 3 on

Halo of Flies Records out of Milwaukee, WI; but don’t fret if you

don’t have a record player, each record that you buy directly from the

band will come with a CD-R containing all of the tracks.

“Altruism vs. Egoism (The War Within),” is a song about one’s

intentions and may have you considering the nature of your thoughts

and actions as lead singer Tony Yannick screams, “The appetite cannot

be fed to satisfy/Greed besieged reason in whom thinks of only

himself/No longer human... but machine.” You may not want to listen to

this disc on the subway, because the striking drum roll of “Vanquish,”

and the downshifting guitar tempo will have you slam dancing on the L Train. “Forever Cursed,” takes off without a moment’s notice into discordant hardcore and the high energy doesn’t stop as the rest of the band does battle cry-esque backing vocals throughout the song. In “IV,” Yannick says, “From the beginning of time we've forged our prophets/From a shallow pool of fantasies and moral backwash.”

In short, if God does exist, and has heard Eden compromised he sure as hell is in Heaven crowd surfing and pumping his fist in the air.