Misc. Day – Eyes & Nines

Trash Talk’s Eyes and Nines is an explosive tour through the fiery depths of hell. The journey is a blasting roller-coaster that slows down to catch its breath only for a moment, before return back into the frenzied mosh-pits that Trash Talk has been made popular for.

Eyes and Nines begins with “Vultures,” a track that features a gentle drum build up, then bursts into an all out war between the instruments. The guitars battle against the drums and Lee Spielman’s voice is always one of the pivotal pieces to the puzzle, completing and drawing each track together. The way that Garrett Stevenson rips the guitar to shreds, the way Spencer Pollard annihilates the bass and backs up Spielman on vocals, and how Sam Bosson smashes on the drums makes for a killer combination.

The entirety of Eyes and Nines’ tracks are primarily under 2-3 minutes with the exception of “Hash Wednesday,” but they all prove their point and leave their mark on the listener. The pounding waves that come from Trash Talk’s great use of emotion to convey and display their music in such a way that makes you want to move. It encourages jumping off of things around the room, it encourages anarchy, and best of all, it encourages just how downright entertaining music can be.

The tracks like “Flesh & Blood” and “Explode” are ultimately fuel to the fire that is Eyes and Nines. Trash Talk uses a slick guitar breakdown in “Flesh & Blood” to give the rest of the band a second to compile themselves before launching into one of the heavier second halves of the track. “Flesh & Blood” then perfectly jumps head first into “Explode” which begins with these blasting beats on the drums from Bosson, Spielman and Pollard yelling everything they have, and Stevenson again bringing furious riffs and grooves. “Explode” also features a breakdown, but it is short-lived and eventually launches right back into the action. The track finally comes to a close with the band exclaiming, “No one can save you now.”

This perfectly Segues into the next track, “Hash Wednesday” which is the longest and slowest track on Eyes & Nines. The track opens with what sounds like a preacher declaring that, “A person with no values, and no faith in god, and a nation with no values other than their own values are rubbish,” which then leads into this sludge-fest of an instrumental that echoes throughout the entirety of the track. The way that Trash Talk uses this anti-preacher opening relates back to the track “Explode” and its final lines.

Eyes and Nines constantly deals with the topic of mankind and its downfalls. The following track “Envy” describes “These ain’t your father’s battles this is more, Holy wars on foreign shores blitzkrieg cliques on world tours.” Trash Talk’s unique sound combines rage, pain, and aggression all into one package, the same could be said for the topics they discuss in their tracks. Topics like war, an unreachable goal of peace, and complete destruction of mankind always reign through in their message, which only adds to each release.

The tracks that follow, “I Do,” “Trudge,” and “On A Fix” are the fastest tracks on the entire album. As soon as these tracks begin blaring and destroying the surroundings, they end in a blaze of glory. “I Do” is a 39-second masterpiece that obliterates the ears, the track then transitions without skipping a beat into “Trudge.” “Trudge” continues to follow the destructive nature that Trash Talk does so well, but then falls into this pit of a breakdown that really is not much of a breakdown at all. Trash Talk actually seems to pick up intensity through this slow down, and it makes the entire track come together into one giant bomb that destroys everything around it.

“On A Fix” is a chaotic frenzy of smashing percussion, howling vocals and guitars that blaze through the fret board. The track then again, perfectly transitions into the final song, “Eyes & Nines.” This was the climatic end to one of the loudest albums known to man. The bass line that opens the track, to the then deafening drums and vocals from both Spielman and Pollard backing each other up. The entire track just feels like a powerhouse from Trash Talk and it is the perfect send off into the immensely bright future for hardcore music, but the bleak future for mankind.