Label: Spook Records
Date: October 31st, 2024
“Hardcore / metal since 1998” delivers a debut album in late 2024! A sensational title to a newsreel! Over a quarter of a century since the formation and all Peacemaker had to offer were two promotional CDs and even they came at twelve years apart. Whatever they were up to kept them well away from both hardcore and metal. And unfortunately, as I’m about to explain, it seems that their time (and their prime) has passed.
Peacemaker is a five-piece from Poland whose music is best described as a mixture of hardcore and death metal. The information on their Bandcamp page also states grindcore and sludge influences, but as far as I could hear, those are quite minimal and practically borderline death metal in their essence. I can sum it all up with a couple of names. Hatebreed, Madball or Sick Of It All, on the hardcore side. Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Obituary when it comes to death metal. A somewhat weirder example on “Internal Revolution” is “99 Thousand of Lies” which brings about mid-career Sepultura or Soulfly to the table. Other than that one, the rest are fairly straight-forward steamrollers and heavy hitters. Deliverers of direct punches to the listener. It’s achieved by using emblematic hardcore breakdowns and rhythmic patterns, along with early, thrashy death metal. Couple of other tricks are occasionally used, such as twisted guitar riffs or mentioned “sludge-ish” pieces, but that’s just about everything that is to be found on “Internal Revolution”. Even these sludge moments could easily be understood as just slow death metal. Likewise with the said grindcore, in the opposite direction.
However, as much as these classic genre traits are parts of Peacemaker’s credo, they are also their doom. The trouble with using old recipes is that you need fresh ingredients. Basically, already with the opening track, “(We Come) From Nowhere”, you know exactly what it is you’re about to be listening for the next half an hour. The track is a hardcore standard. Even the lyrics are the epitome of hardcore clichés. It’s terribly recognizable, from countless examples over the past three decades. That’s what I meant when, in the introduction to this review, I wrote Peacemaker’s time has passed. Perhaps in 1998, when the band was starting out, the world could’ve handled a few relatively faceless records and with age the band could’ve achieved some cult following. Nowadays, thousands of albums later, I’m afraid “Internal Revolution” is destined for oblivion.
That being said, if it falls on your lap, like it did on mine, it’s worth a couple of spins before it starts collecting dust on your shelf. If it doesn’t, there’s really no need to frantically hunt it down.
