Foreground

If you took Rage Against the Machine, Tool, P.O.D, and the ‘80s band Suicidal Tendencies, threw them all into a pot and let them boil for about two weeks, then filtered the remaining slurry into a bottle of Sierra Nevada, you would have the local Chico hardcore band Foreground.

Is this a good thing? Well, in this case … not really. While the music itself isn’t necessarily bad, with some pretty accomplished guitarwork and drumming, the vocals and songwriting skills are, to this reviewer, sorely lacking. With song titles like “Satan’s Hypocrisy” and “Feelings of Fright,” accompanied by lyrics like “Yeah, I’m locked up in chains totally insane/Can you feel my rage?/The men in black got guns on my back/Can you hear me, pig?” this zeppelin of overactive clichés does not get off of the ground. In eight tracks, it seems like the band is just showing how it can sound like eight different well-established hardcore bands.

Sorry guys, but I don’t see much originality here. Though the song "The Payment" had a really interesting sound, with a washed-out guitar setting up a good groove, by the time the vocals came in it became just another crotch-grabbing "Ah got a goatee and ah’m angry!" cliché. Nope. Next.