Man, fucking Gat-Rot. Totally unknown and playing massively better shit than anyone else was at the time except Hatebreed (who were fucking forefronting the scene so cut 'em some slack)... their dry desert brand of Arizonian crossover metalcore should have been totally on everyone's metal mix CDs in the early 90's. Sounding like someone blended Internal Suffering with a Korn demo, it's a tad under-produced, the exact sound the aforementioned Hatebreed was trying to escape from after their Under The Knife demo, but it takes what Biohazard was kinda polishing up (pre their industrial-ish days) and makes it just that excessively bit heavier. For a bunch of West Coasters they really tapped into that Brooklyn back-and-forth lyricist vibe... token NYC accent and fucking all. There's a little token scritch-scratch DJ-ing/white-boy hip hop here and there trying to tap in to what Korn and Limp Bizkit were doing at the time and it's only confusing because it's mixed so weirdly... and kinda unnecessary... like it's an overdub to appeal to idiots. But enough old-man proselytizing, Strength Through Struggle fucking kills. "Equilibrium" is easily akin to the fucking pissed off shit in today's hardcore scene (personally I'd love to re-record this song bare-bones), "Down" has the most ridiculously chant-y bridge breakdown (bass break included), "I Resist" oozes an addictive crossover vibe; there's a weird-ass rolling groove to their songs that just makes you want to jump into your own personal mosh pit. Sure there is a little Bio-worship here and there ("Backfire" especially) but you wouldn't be listening to this band if you weren't quasi-familiar with the old school so whaddya expect? Check their other pre-Us Vs. Them record here and I think they actually get together and play locally - their window to the interweb is here. Enjoy.
