Review:
Corpus Christi’s, The Golden Age, quickly follow up their EP Time & Distance, released earlier this year with their newest full length entitled Unlock Yourself. 12 songs full of energy and positivity that will get you moving.
Consider me speechless. I knew prior to popping this disc in that I had heard the name before but couldn’t say I knew much about them. I had the vague memory of hearing they were faster paced and heavily influenced by the old school punk hardcore. If you know me, you know I’m not generally a fan of that style of hardcore. Like I’ve said before I’ve got into hardcore through metal so most of the old punk hardcore bands never mattered to me. So needless to say I went into this figuring I’d give it one listen, write up a pretty mediocre review for it and move onto the next disc in my pile.
Well part of the idea I had was correct. The Golden Age is more of a faster paced band and you can definitely hear the influence of those older bands. What I didn’t expect was the overall heaviness of it. Now when I say heavy, I’m not saying its 100 Demons heavy or anything like that but the guitars have this thickness to them that make them standout above a lot of those other bands I can stand. Laced so perfectly in the mix is a melody that reminds me of a lot of the mid-90’s melodic hardcore bands. You can hear the influence of bands like Stretch Armstrong and Strike Anywhere Oh and for you dance floor warriors, they have plenty of mosh parts but you’ll be out of breath from the two-step before you can even show the world your greatest ninja skills.
Musical styling aside the band has this energy about them that is hard to describe but when I listen to this record I feel an extra “oomph” listening to it. And when you interject Fabian Rangel’s posi inspired lyrics you can’t help but feel energetic listening to this record. While on the subject of the lyrics I must say that a lot of bands, especially straightedge bands, can come off incredibly preachy and it kind of ruins it for those non-edge kids. Being Straightedge, maintaining a positive outlook, and having hope are subjects that this band covers and they are able to convey their message without being cheesy either.
My only complaint about this record is the band seems to blow their wad with the earlier tracks on the disc and by the conclusion of the record it feels like the adrenaline shot has start to wear off. It’s not so much the songs are bad but it kind of comes off that they were the last songs they wrote for the record and only threw them on there so that the album could reach the full length time requirement. I’m not nearly as impressed with the last few tracks as I am the majority of the album.
I’m really interested in getting my hands on the rest of this bands back catalog. If their other material is this good consider me a fan. I’m intrigued to see this band live. If they can bring the energy their record has to the stage they could easily be one of those bands that everyone will start talking about. Hopefully they come to Philadelphia (or the surrounding area soon) because I definitely want to kill it for these guys.
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