Everything You Know by Wisdom In Chains

Wisdom In Chains – Everything You Know Album Review Rating: 9 Label: I Scream Records Reviewer: Rena Koutsou In a time and tide where hardcore music and a part of it’s fans are crying over the ashes of the old-school era, being bombed by the thousands of uninspired standards and beatdown dullish rhythms, fortunately there are still some bands who succeed to maintain their uniqueness and continue this adequate work that was handled by their anteriors. For those who don’t know (unacceptable though even if you are fresh in the scene), “Wisdom In Chains” is an American hardcore band formed in 2002, marking three full-length albums, plus a few splits and re-releases. “Everything You Know” is the band’s fourth full-length release. The album consists of 20 tracks and starts in a hair-raising mood, with an intro full of dark wolf-screams and baby-cries which could easily be an opening part of the new Slayer album rather than the new WIC and it goes ahead with a few minute secondary-kinda intro titled “Guilty”, which is more like they wanted to give a small taste of what follows up as a sequel. Nevertheless I think that nobody would really rely on those two opening songs to build a conclusion, especially when the song “Bully” takes it’s effect, starting with some furiously firm sing-alongs and that’s when the riffing brainwave party takes the gate and peaks in the next song titled “Chasing The Dragon”, where there’s also an effective guest appearance from Sick Of It All’s frontman, Lou Koller, that definitely makes you say the next day “Last Night Hardcore Saved My Life” (lyrical extract from this song). In general the album waggles in some short of softer and more “melodic ‘n’ roll” patterns (whatever the hell that means!) than “Class War” which is the band’s previous release (another masterpiece I might add), reminds more their self-titled cd and I think that this authenticity is one of the reasons the fans gonna love this! Lyrically it’s a typical rough and raw hardcore creation with no special meanings through it, but who asked for something else anyway. This album is indeed an absolute classic from the beginning ‘till the end, so naming the highlights would be just a waste of time. Head over to order your copy and better do this pretty quick cause the pre-order package with the above mentioned lyrics t-shirt design (“Last Night Hardcore Saved My Life”) is only available for a few more days. ℗ 2009 I Scream Records