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- Chain Whip - Two Steps To Hell
Chain Whip - Two Steps To Hell
6 tracks of Vancouver, BC hardcore. Chain Whip formed in 2018 with the sole intention of playing their favorite blend of hardcore punk. Part KBD, part California beach, part grimy Vancouver. This 12" E.P. finds the band in a faster, more furious mode with five original tracks written and recorded in the height of the 2020 Pandemic. 3 tracks are re-recorded and polished versions from their 2020 Demo (being pressed on LP RIGHT NOW by No Spirit in Germany) while the others are brand new Chain Whip recordings. The final track, Death Was Too Kind was written by Brian Goble and recorded by the Subhumans.
From the band:
"For me it started in December 2019 when a developer unveiled a 5 million dollar chandelier to hang from the Granville Street Bridge - a testament to wealth and the city's cluelessness. A smug fuck you on display for the world to ogle while people froze in sleeping bags underneath. That insult grew into something more tangible.
2020 was the year that an ever-worsening overdose epidemic was too boring for most news cycles. We watched citizens of North America get murdered in real time by pigs. White supremacists marched in the streets, encouraged by their revered grifters. Major news corporations backed both on primetime while demonizing people for just wanting to stay alive.
We sat back, depressed and tuned into the images. We wished that we could just pull the plug on the nightmare around us. We attended some demonstrations, organized some benefits. Stayed home and we drank and drugged. We tried to sleep away the reality. Just like pollution makes the sunsets richer, we danced that good beat; a dependable, monotonous, continuous death.
It hasn't quite come for us yet but we're still dancing to that tune - ever closer to the edge.
Two Step To Hell. Meaner, faster, and a bit more pissed off."
Chain Whip
"You ever wonder what Keith Morris does at the end of the day? Does he maintain that wide-eyed stare, the one that pins audiences to the floor with its very intensity, while he’s putting on his pyjamas? Does he continue spitting venom from that heroically ragged throat of his while he’s making his cocoa? Does he lay his head on his pillow with the same righteous fury that launched thousands upon thousands of moshpits? Hey, I’m just wondering.
Y’see, all that intensity and venom and fury… it has to go somewhere while he’s otherwise occupied with mundane tasks like taking off his socks or brushing his teeth, right? And listening to the thrilling racket conjured up by Vancouver’s Chain Whip, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they have somehow become vessels for that energy. I mean, they’re Morris’ spiritual successors - if their 2019 debut ‘14 Lashes’ wasn’t enough of a clue, then this six-song blast of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it brilliance should leave you in no doubt. This is hardcore punk as it was originally conceived, and it slays.
‘But who are Chain Whip?’ I hear you ask. Well, they’re a bunch of dudes from British Columbia who’ve also served time in bands like The Jolts, Fashionism and Corner Boys (among others). They’re the ones who are gonna have you slashing the seats at your local cinema, or taking potshots at lines of empty bottles on street corners, cuz they make you feel so damn tuff. OK, I’m just goofing around here - whereas Chain Whip are serious business. No, really.
I dare you to listen to the Germs-go-nuclear b(‘)last of ‘Laguna Bleach’, or the garage-slop-at-200-mph rush of ‘Fresh Paint And Philanthropy’, and not want to launch a stink bomb into your teacher’s car. Or, failing that, to bring about the extinction of global capitalism. If that fails, you’ll just end up wearing out the grooves of this very fine six-song EP while bouncing between walls like the DRI logo guy if he wore jet heels and spring-loaded shoulder pads.
Jeez, imagine Keith finishing the night shift and giving these guys a handover. As if they’d even need to be told.
Look, Chain Whip are the best straight-up old-skool punk band you’ll hear today. You know what to do. Trust your instincts. Dance that two-step to hell with ‘em. This. Is. The. Shit."
Will Fitzpatrick.