Broken Teeth – “At Peace Amongst Chaos” [Album Review]

Even though they now share a home with bands like Slayer, I always find it strange when a “mainstream” record label picks up on a group like Broken Teeth. You see, while there isn’t anything particularly wrong with the punk/hardcore/thrash cocktail that the Manchester band peddle, there are also millions of acts propping up punk and hardcore bills across the world that sound like this. In fact, even these Manchester noise merchants have been battering out their chaos to the hardcore scene for nearly nine years now. So, my question to Nuclear Blast is, why now and why Broken Teeth?

OK, so let’s accept that Broken Teeth just got a lucky break and they’ve made the jump into the big leagues. What next? The reason I ask is because, listening to At Peace Amongst Chaos, their new album for Nuclear Blast, there isn’t anything on here that is going to shift millions of albums; they’re not going to be headlining arenas nor are they going to take punk/hardcore to the mainstream masses. However, what you do get with At Peace Amongst Chaos is thirty minutes of Slayer/old-school crossover inspired punk rock. There is no fuss, no fancy effects, just chaotic, bloody punk/hardcore.

In fact, there is so little to this album other than waves and waves of raw, Slayer-inspired riffs that the thirty minutes just fly by as songs like “Stomp At Dust” and “Show No Mercy” rattle along leaving you little time to catch your breath. Punk rock has always been aggressive, violent music and Broken Teeth are no exception to the rule. Are they this generations Municipal Waste i.e. a band who are really good at what they’re doing who have been chosen to lead a new generation of fans into an influx of groups rehashing what was done twenty…thirty years ago?

Which takes me back full circle to my point at the beginning of this review. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with what Broken Teeth do. At Peace Amongst Chaos is a decent enough example of a genre that, when all said and done, is played by bands just for the love of it. Broken Teeth on the other hand seem to have done something that has got them noticed. Personally, I can’t see what but Nuclear Blast have clearly seen the X-factor in these guys and I’m already seeing reviews where this band are being lauded as the “future of hardcore”. Really? Can someone just explain why?

At Peace Amongst Chaos Track Listing:

01. Take Me Away
02. Leach Regress To Snake
03. Stomp 2 Dust
04. At Peace Amongst Chaos
05. Witness of Destruction
06. Nothing Like You
07. Show No Mercy
08. Lose My Grip
09. Prove You Wrong
10. Riot of the Mind

Run Time: 30:58
Release Date: May 6, 2016

Check out the track “Show No Mercy”