Review - Gets Worse

Gets Worse
Negative

Gets Worse are having a very good year - first they brought out their EP Year of the Bastard, one track from which was featured on the Only Good Tory comp that I reviewed on here a while ago, and now they have a new seven inch out. After the astonishing Year of the Bastard - and last year's self-titled album - Gets Worse had a lot to live up to on this new release.

Fortunately, they manage to match the standard they've set. While Negative doesn't quite have the "holy fuck what is this!?" impact of Year of the Bastard, I think a lot of that is down to their last EP having been my first encounter with the band's work. Certainly, Negative is on a level with anything they've done previously in terms of songwriting - the vocals are raw, punky, raspy; the bass is distorted and played with great finesse; the songs mix in some slow, menacing parts with the high-speed aggression. Everything you would want from a great powerviolence record is here. The lyrics deal with the kind of relentless negativity that you;d expect from a band with a name like Gets Worse, and though ranting about hipsters and positive hardcore isn't exactly original, the great thing about PV is you don;t have to listen to the lyrics - you can't hear them anyway. Basically, this is a great release by a great band.

Rating: 7/10