2002 • Havoc Records
When I get a hankering for hardcore punk, I usually turn right to the classic bands of the early '80s (your Minor Threats, Black Flags, etc.), but it's easy to forget that good hardcore bands have always been around and some are still cranking out quality material. Vitamin X formed in 1998, long after hardcore's heyday, but are sorely overlooked and have created a really fun album with Down the Drain.
The sound is typical for thrashcore: incredibly fast riffing, spastic drumming, screams galore, etc. While Vitamin X may not sound terribly original on the surface, their playing and songwriting skills are pretty damn good. Progressing from older hardcore's three-chord clichés, we hear some neat metal-inspired riffs, the occasional blast beat, and some cool guitar/bass dynamics. It's a somewhat familiar sound but at the same time very much matured from what you might get from an '80s band, which I think is appropriate for an album coming out in 2002. The guitar and drums are both technically very impressive which helps keep the songs diverse and interesting.
One of the album's biggest weaknesses, though, is its length, although in a different way than most albums. Yes, it's only 22 minutes long, but it's different when all 22 of those minutes are pummeling your ears near-constantly. It's not that the album is full of filler—in fact, every song is as good as the next—but I firmly believe that the album format is not a good one for this style of music. Had Down the Drain been split into two EPs, it would be (in my opinion) the perfect format, as it's about halfway through that it starts to get a little tiring (not much, and not enough for me to stop listening, but it does).
Regardless, I have to respect the band for writing as many quality tracks for this album as they did. Even if it's a bit lengthy, at no point did any of it feel like filler, which is a pretty amazing feat. Needless to say, I'm a fan, as should be anyone into hardcore punk.
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