[Reaper16]

19.) Trap Them – Darker Handcraft


Almost as a rule, I dislike hardcore punk. I rarely enjoy metalcore because I hate hardcore vocals (which are just noise without any percussive sense to them) and I hate bland, boring breakdowns. But sometimes a metal album uses hardcore in constructive ways. Trap Them is a band whose career is built off of doing that. Darker Handcraft utilizes the raw power of hardcore punk along with heavy doses of Entombed-style death metal to create an album that is just punishing and unrelenting. Each song is short, the album is over in a flash, and you will have been slapped upside your head by dozens upon dozens of riffs by the time it’s all over. It’s quick and brutal and among the most fun a metalhead will have with a 2011 album. Linked is album highlight “The Facts,” which has an incredibly catch guitar riff and a super-fun intentional reference to The Misfits in the vocal line “I am that Goddamed sonofabitch!” Indeed.