By Mike Fordham
Somewhere, in some rock ‘n’ roll bible, a commandment states, “Bad music shall begat bad music.” Such is the case with Toronto’s No Warning. This quintet has the distinction of being the first act on Linkin Park’s new label, Machine Shop Recordings. In fact, Chester and co. gave No Warning an opening slot on this past summer’s “Projekt Revolution” tour, and the group also will be sharing some other high-profile bills in the near future with the Used and Hatebreed.
Linkin Park made their bread and butter by mixing rap and metal. Taking a cue from them, No Warning mixes hardcore and Linkin Park. Their debut EP, Suffer, Survive is packed with super-fast guitars, whining vocals and fake-sounding machismo. It’s not hard in the least to detect the band trying to be all tough and hardcore. Simply imagine Mr. Bennington joining up with Hatebreed and the result would sound eerily similar to Suffer, Survive. Vocalist Ben Cook’s wailing mimics Linkin Park’s frontman, at times.
Again like Linkin Park, all of No Warning’s songs all sound virtually the same. The only difference amongst them is when the tracks end. “Breeding Insanity” begins with a puzzling banjo/spoken word intro before launching into another hardcore rip-off song. “No Don’t Think So” sticks out if only for its awful title. Probably the least worst songs on Suffer, Survive are “Back To Life” and “Live Through Me,” and even then, a listener’s tolerance is severely tested.
Just one of the many problems with Suffer, Survive is the amount of tracks. In total, ten songs make up the EP (and the last two are bonus tracks). Is this an EP or an album? Most albums have at least ten tracks while EP’s typically hold four or five songs. The sole relief is that the disc lasts for only twenty eight minutes. No Warning’s adherence to rapid and short songs might be the only connection to any legitimate (and talented) hardcore group out there.
Don’t be surprised if No Warning takes off. The EP is primped and groomed for radio and video channels, especially since the band has Linkin Park’s backing. It’s sad to think that No Warning may very well be what the masses consider “hardcore” soon.
Suffer, Survive could not be more accurately named. A listener has to suffer through it, and hope to survive through the experience.
