That’s right, what we have here is yet another hardcore punk album that took a bit (about a year to be precise) to slither to the surface and land in our hands from the excruciating shadows it was birthed in, but its power and sheer force are just too grand for it to lurk in the unknown forever. What landed on our desk is in fact yet another extremely confrontational hardcore album, a voice that ruptured from the gutter of the uttermost underground with the sole intent of being heard loud and clear and to wreck complete havoc on our sorry and unexpecting ears.
Black Code is a french d-beat/crust/death n’ roll band from Besancon, and their debut album (appropriately titled “Hanged, Drawn and Quartered“), once again completely self-released, is so explosive and bile-drenched that from the first seconds of the opening track, “Death Patrol,” shit starts hitting the fan with such intensity that it feels like the god of all shit storms itself has decided to plunge from the sky and crash on our sorry skulls. There is not one corner of this beastly hardcore album that isn’t super-charged and fully injected with unstoppable fucking mayhem. Seriously, every nook and cranny of this thing is so stuffed with spite and rage that no room is really left for anything else besides uncontrollable destruction.
The secret behind Black Code’s incredibly mauling sonic assault is the influence these guys bring in from various other forms of extreme metal outside of punk and hardcore. If the foundation of their sound is surely rooted in Scandinavian crust, especially in the tank-like structures of bands like Martyrdöd, Wolfbrigade and Disfear, these French boys certainly do not stop there. Instead they take it to the next level of cruelty and borrow other elements from various other extreme genres as well, like thrash and melodic death metal, to make sure their sonic attack is at par with that of a full on cataclysm. You will easily recognize in their sound the power and precision of important metal bands like At The Gates, Slayer, “To Ride…”-era Entombed, early Sepultura and even Dissection and Dismember spread throughout, while the attitude, energy and moods remain those firmly rooted in the purest form of hardcore and punk ethics. This is music which might be not very “profound” or “deep”, but that’s not the fucking point, what you’re doing when you press “play” on Black Code’s music is just testing your self to see if you can withstand the sonic mauling this band has in its agenda for us all. You might end up impaired, but you will enjoy every second of it, so get fucking clobbered!
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