Hey.  Tell me something.  Have you ever had your eardrum busted?  Have you?  No?  You will.
Having just listened to Continent all the way through I can say for sure that this album equals pure cochlear destruction.  I have 3750 and The Dead Walk.  Been an avid fan of the band since I got said albums for Xmas one year.  They get constant rotation in my players.  This one is now going to be in constant rotation.

 Basically to describe The Acacia Strain is like this.  Heaviness for the sake of heaviness.  Very straightforward and stripped down as opposed to other metalcore.  There's nothing groundbreaking or reinvention going on here.  Any melody that's present lasts for seconds and you forget about it soon after the next barrage of straight up heft continues.  But who cares?  This is addictive.  Guitars crash down like large hammers on bones.  Snapping instantly.  The drumming is just purely cataclysmic.  Bass that makes you want to run to the bathroom and take a crap.  The band sounds like they are truly trying to bring about the end of the world while simultaneously making the Stay Puft marshmallow man look like a little bitch.  The whole album sounds like the band is playing atop of 1000 foot tall buildings with 1,000,000 watt amplifiers.  Turn this up!!!!!!!  That is what it's for.

 Not much variation in the vocal department.  Vincent Bennet does not sing and I'm completely ok with that.  But again I care not.  Due simply to the fact that this band does not care.  They are making music that they like to make and hear and I completely and utterly am behind them on that.  This to me is Motorhead for the 21'st century.  I would say heaviest album of the year.  Not many could argue.  So....If you feel like having your ears purely destroyed.  If you would like to have your stereo speakers crackling and cursing you.  Put this shit on and rock it out because The Acacia Strain know how to clean house.  On a side note I saw them live last night with Unearth, Protest the Hero, Gwen Stacy and Whitechapel.  You owe it to yourself to see them live too.  Because this mix of evil hardcore and metal is just as punishing live as it is on cd.  Once again I'll say this.  Turn it up.

- Darrel