PANIC ATTACK!: Don't Stop (HARDCORE): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Panic Attack! is a Norwegian hardcore band, a kind of catharsis for its frontman David Leigh Pickett, who suffers from bipolar disorder. The band's music vacillates between rebellious hardcore and heavy metal. Short-lived, it's a hurricane that will leave no one indifferent. Welcome to this turbulent, chaotic and disturbing journey.

Everything in Panic Attack!'s music is designed to purge the demons: a cry that comes from within, from an interior marked by trauma, psychosis, alcohol, suicide and drugs. The cover is eloquent: the character is lost and drowned in pills, his face marked by a spiral is indistinct.

Straightforward and uncompromising, the record is underpinned by energetic, dark music that nevertheless hints at hope at the end of the songs ('Holding On'). The riffs are marked by a spirit of revolt, while the solo guitar parts are bleeding and incisive ('Don't Stop'). The tightly-packed music fits perfectly with the band's message, so length doesn't matter - energy is all that counts. Thirty minutes or so are enough to outline the contours of a bitter, violent and intense record. On rare occasions, the band tries something different, flirting with heavy metal thanks to square, hard-hitting riffs ('Talking Bag').

This is a well-executed, hard-hitting album that conforms to the obligations of the style, while deflecting them somewhat ('One The Train (With You)'). Even if it's difficult to inject novelty into this style, it would have been nice to air out the subject matter and then reinforce it. "Don't Stop" is a painful, violent record designed to awaken consciences. The squared-off music offers everything you'd expect from hardcore with its hot, burning passages. - Official website

PANIC ATTACK!

DON'T STOP

AUTRE LABEL

HARDCORE