Terror - Live By The Code

Terror
Live By The Code
Century Media Records/E.M.I. Music Australia

A year after the release of the live album/D.V.D. package ‘No Regrets No Shame: The Bridge Nine Days’ (A long lost recording of one of the band’s earliest live shows from 2003), long running Los Angeles (California, U.S.) based hardcore/punk rock outfit Terror are back after a three year absence following the release of ‘Keepers Of The Faith’ with their latest full-length release ‘Live By The Code’.
Much like fellow hardcore/metalcore outfit Hatebreed, Terror isn’t the sort of band to play around too much with their firmly established sound from album to album. The band have well and truly established their sound over their ten year existence, and as far as the band are concerned, you can take it or leave it.
But the fact that there’s not a whole lot of variation between one Terror release and the next really isn’t the true measure of a great Terror album. What’s important here is how memorable the songs are, how the production sounds and whether or not the songs are able to mean something to the listener on a personal level. And it’s by using those measures that I’m able to determine that with ‘Live By The Code’, Terror have managed to put together an album that as a whole has that special something that was missing on ‘Keepers Of The Faith’, all the while remaining true to themselves and giving fans everything they would otherwise expect from a Terror release.
Terror (Who have managed to retain the same line-up of vocalist Scott Vogel, guitarists Jordan Posner and Martin Stewart, bassist David Wood and drummer Nick Jett from the last album) introduce their new album via a short bit of feedback, which eventually bleeds into ‘The Most High’. It’s immediately clear that with ‘The Most High’, Terror have added a little grittiness to the sound since their last album, with the guitars in particular sounding a little rawer and heavier. As a song, the mid-paced number is a solid effort, and full of Terror’s trademark energy and Vogel’s bark to keep fans pleased with the results.
The follow-up track ‘Not Impressed’ is a bit faster and darker than the opener, but seems a little lacking in terms of variation. But with ‘Cold Truth’, Terror seems to hit their intended target with a vengeance, and in turn produce one of the album’s many highlights.
Elsewhere, ‘I’m Only Stronger’, the first single ‘Hard Lessons’ (Which was released late last year through Reaper Records), the bludgeoning ‘The Good Die Young’, the intense ‘Shot Of Reality’ and the speeding blitz of ‘Invasion’ are the definitive picks dotted throughout the album.
Despite its short running time (The album is a touch under the twenty-seven minute mark), and sounding much like the Terror we’ve all come to know and love, ‘Live By The Code’ is another solid release from Terror, and one that’s sure to keep hardcore fans pleased and the retain the reputation of the band as one of the hardcore scene’s more revered outfits.

For more information on Terror, check out - https://www.facebook.com/terrorhardcore.

© Justin Donnelly.