Paint the Town Red
Home is Where the Hate Is
Paint the Town Red’s Home is Where the Hate Is has truth in advertising, but this is also socially conscious hardcore. While it’s a decent effort, the lack of innovation renders it far from mandatory listening. Modern Life is War has comparable lyrical messages but also reasons to hear them out.
It’s painfully clear this wasn’t blessed with any such God City Studios (Carry On, Another Breath) treatment. Drumming is too muffled and needs to be introduced into the foreground. Furthermore, for having two guitarists credited, it never impacts the sound. Paint the Town Red reminds me sonically of Blacklisted, and they only have one guitarist.
The main disappointment is not the production, but how this embodies the term “borecore.” The screaming doesn’t even sound bad, but the vocalist’s same pissed-off delivery gets tired so fast. Identical-sounding songs, derivative screaming, and stale riffs all lead me to look elsewhere for my hardcore.