“You try to control my life? NEVER!” With this battle cry, Wisdom In Chains kicked off their first official release. Twelve years later, the Philadelphia crew is still top of the game. What started off as a side project of Dutch hardcore band Dare Devil and Philly’s own Krutch, soon became one of hardcore’s powerhouses. The God Rhythm – WiC’s fifth full length – clearly shows the band still has the venom and rage to keep redecorating hardcore venues for a long time to come.

It’s still fast, still angry and still with one of the best crew sing-a-longs in the game. So far nothing has changed. Wisdom In Chains still worries. Quite a lot. About the world in which their children grow up, about losing friends, about letting the ones they love down and about the current state of hardcore.

‘Songs To My Killer’ almost has a metallic street punk vibe to it. A bit lighter, some solos and Mad Joe has always sounded like he could have been an Oi Punk icon. Where some of the songs on Wisdom In Chains’ last album sounded like a search towards a longer build-up in songs, a song like ‘Mathematics’ clearly proves the band has found its balance. What starts like an interlude continues with a slow metal riff and finds its climax in ferocious sing-alongs.

But to say that Wisdom in Chains limits itself to anger and rage would be violating the bands’ versatility. ‘Best of Me’ might not be a track you would play on your first date or your wedding day – believe me, I suggested it – but it’s a straight forward love song, paying homage to the people in your life who save you from succumbing to cynism and negativity in a world that tries to bring you down.

“It pours from my pores and pools on floors, on a stage in a mic at night on tour, I spit it in the face of all my friends, I spit it in s sea of angry men. You saved me from myself.”

The God Rhythm is an incredibly forceful hardcore album, addressing all the themes you’d expect and some more. After more than a decade Wisdom In Chains still improves and broadens, without ever compromising the scorching fury that made the band what it is today. Get. This. Record.

Track list – The God Rhythm:

1. People Die
2. When We Were Young
3. Resonate
4. How Far Will You Go
5. Songs To My Killer
7. Mathematics
8. Fatherless
9. Best Of Me
10. The God Rhythm
11. Violent Americans
12. Joey Ramone
13. Skinhead Gang
14. Outro

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