Band: Consumed Release: Hit For Six State: N/A Label: Fat Wreck Chords PO Box 193690, San Francisco, CA 94119-3690 http://www.fatwreck.com Contact: My story with Consumed is as follows... My friends and I were in Boston one afternoon and at the Harvard Square Newbury Comics we saw a poster of Consumed in the "FREE BIN". The picture of a blood dripping, exploded, partly shredded fly on the cover was not the most attractive image. That teamed with the font used to write "Consumed" made me figure that they were a metal or metal-core band. I had figured that they'd be somewhere along the lines of Adamantium or something like that, based on the front cover alone. Then I noticed that it was on Fat Wreck Chords, so I assumed that either Fat Wreck was changing style (following the Sick of it All release) or Consumed had accidentally used the wrong font. Well not a week later this was in my mailbox, so I was interested in hearing what it was like. I'm quite disappointed. Maybe it was just expecting metal, or the looking at the back cover the guys in the band look mad old school that let me down when I actually went to play it. It begins with "Sunnyside Up" which sounds like Alligator Gun with a little more energy and with very basic lyrics. The next song does not improve my feelings much. It just strikes me as funny that Fat Wreck would release a record like this. It's not bad, but not great. It's not all that pop-punk, but it's really can't be described as much else. I may have forgotten to mention that they're from England (Nottinghamshire to be exact), which could account for the accent and some of the music. "Wake Up With a Smile" puts it on the right track, as it's a really catchy good song. "King Kong Song" makes me begin to think that the first two songs were just mistakes. They play with a Snuff meets No Use For A Name sound at times. So, tracks three through seven aren't bad and I think that the CD is overall quite good, when "Twat called Maurice" comes on. Not surprisingly the lyrics to this song are not printed on the insert (while all the other songs are) as it seems to be very homophobic (now, I could just be misinterpreting because the lyrics aren't inside) and the lyrics are just plain dumb and repetitive. I don't know. Overall the music isn't bad (I don't like song one or two that much because of the music) but the lyrics don't seem all too great. All of them are written as if it was a conversation and they mostly tend to be negative and derogatory, which was very different from the Hi-Standard CD that I also received the same day. Tracks: 1. Sunnyside Up 2. On the Take Again 3. Wake Up with a Smile 4. King Kong Song 5. Nicky Fry 6. Something to Do 7. Lead the Way 8. Twat Called Maurice 9. Butterside Down 10. Do the Duchess 11. Chop Suicide 12. Promoter Head 13. Black and Blue 14. Start Living