Some bands on paper just aren’t our cuppa, y’know? Like, they do what they do and do it really well and sometimes it clicks and sometimes it doesn’t. Then there are cases when you catch a band out in the wild on stage and are just compelled to devour absolutely everything they’ve ever produced. Like Providence’s Edict.
As our Heavy tastes dwell in the Thrashier, Industrialer, Black Metalier, and Sludgier to name just a few Edict wasn’t really on our radar… until we caught them at their (and our) last show of 2023 opening for the almighty Blood Lightning at the O’Brien’s Anniversary gig. And now you have this mini-novel in front of you so you can tell how that showing turned out for us! With their brand of Melodic Hardcore hearkening back to Tree and Sam Black Church’s vibrant, frenetic energy with some definite Metal tendencies throughout (Old School Machine Head comes to mind if they went in a different direction. Read: Ten Ton Hammer with the rawness of Burn My Eyes), the latest release from Edict called In Defense Of Labor is a blistering barely ten minutes of riveting riots set to a soundtrack.
“Neck Dissection” is a bludgeoning Groove-filled phenomenon that manages to stuff many a breakdown within its’ slick minute and forty six frame with vocalist Joe Krewko coming correct with a Jasta-like (Circa Satisfaction is the Death of Desire) vocal cadence while surrounded by a wall of guitars and bass and some seriously thunderous drumming. “Insurgent” lurches along next with a menacing bass rumble leading the charge before opening into a huge mess of shreds and synchronized percussive attacks with “Traitor” presenting a nice Jekyll & Hyde deconstruction in the way it mixes two completely different stylistic sides then goes back and forth effortlessly within a scant minute and a half. Closing up the trip is the gnarly “King Of Desperation” backed by some Speed Metal riffage and a Hardcore rhythmic onslaught to end Edict’s latest EP with a diabolic dichotomy.
In Defense Of Labor is out now on Unbeaten Records and available through all your most favorite streamers which you can find by clicking here. For more from Edict, including where to catch them live early in the new year, follow them across the information superhighway when you head here, here, or here.