Review: Strengthen What Remains – “Justice Creeps Slow”

Strengthen What Remains (metallic hardcore out of Tampa, FL) just released their second album on Blood & Ink Records on June 9th.

Justice Creeps Slow is a fast-paced EP and a solid follow up to their 2013 full length Turning A Blind Eye. Strengthen What Remains draws influence from All Out War, Figure Four, and Zao.

Justice Creeps Slow was recorded by Corey Williams (Unified Right, Vices), mixed by Dean Baltulonis (Madball, Sheer Terror, Trapped Under Ice), and cover art by Dave Quiggle.

With each of the six tracks clocking in under three minutes, the EP is almost “blink-and-you’ll miss it” length, especially as “Whitewashed” is more an of interlude with voice clips of news anchors and preachers over ambient noise (The “whitewashed” idea is revisited in the final track). Though it is brief, it is a powerhouse of modern hardcore. The songs are denser and even more power-packed than their previous release.

As Zao is one of my longtime favorite bands, I am immediately drawn to any band that tips their hat to those guys. A couple instances where that influence is felt are in the guitar work of “Moral Majority” and in some of the eerie background vocals in “Belly of the Beast.” The latter is a standout track as a more sludgy, metallic song, while remaining grounded in hardcore along with the rest of the EP.

“Shame” mixes in some clean spoken lines like, “history will repeat/ our selfishness is to blame” and clips of a speech which concludes the track with the words, “there comes a time when silence is betrayal.” The use of the voice samples and the occasional switch into spoken/shouted lines carries throughout the album and adds another level of interest to each track while ensuring we keep locked on the words.

Strengthen What Remains hits hard with Justice Creeps Slow: an EP that’s politically charged, aggressive, and ready to bust open frenzied pits nationwide.

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