Hey there punk,

This right here is the blog I'll be posting reviews on from now on. Expect bursts of productivity brushing shoulders with lengthy periods of total apathy. At the time of this writing my main idea is to use Something I wrote today for the publishing of reviews for records I offer through Don't Buy Records, but perhaps I'll use it for other shit as well. Lord knows I can rant! Hell, I might be a vlogger in a year or two. I've been contemplating a career shift for a while now and my mom says I've got the looks for it so who knows?

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 Protocol - Blood Sport 12" (11PM Records)

Debut one-sided 12'' of this Tallahassee, Florida hardcore outfit. There's nothing nice about Blood Sport. It is ugly, in your face and blunt. The recording is a bit muddy, which adds to the stomp of the 5 songs delivered here. I never understood what noise punk means nor what the appeal of Lebenden Toten is, but Protocol's style of hardcore sure is noisy. There is a lot of feedback. The opening chords of this record actually had me think of Drunkdriver. Sonically that's not a bad comparison. The instruments, microphones and amps all sound damaged beyond repair on Blood Sport. Everything is in the red and the distorted vocals nearly get drowned out by the violence produced by the musicians. Ahmad is struggling to make his low barking heard. Always a good thing. All of this is deliberate. These 5 songs have the rawness of a demo tape, a practice room recording. Everything is straight from the gut. Protocol sounds like a mess either because they want to sound like that or because they actually are a mess. Hey, they might be a mess and like it. Why not? These are desperate times indeed.

I've seen Protocol mentioned on quite a few thank you lists over the last couple of years so I guess they are making a positive contribution to US hardcore and are probably torch bearers and crowd pleasers in their local scene. If you've been enjoying Black Dog and similar bands Roachleg Records has released over the last couple of years, chances are you'll be into Protocol too. This is music to mosh to and get punched to. The artwork is rather non-descript with the skulls, torture devices and blood, the images a bit blurry, but all of that fits the overall aesthetic. The record comes with an insert with the lyrics to the songs, no needless luxury, because it's hard to make out what Ahmad is saying. The lyrics are mostly bleak and focus on violence although there is a Poison Idea-esque excursion embracing destruction as something to be celebrated at the end of Divinity: 'Beat my chest/ grab a gun/ hurt somebody just for fun/ smoke dope and kill some time/ all on Uncle Sammy's dime'. The first two songs equate modern life to blood sport. Best lines here to me are: 'Change at these speeds/ is life on my knees/ picking the scraps off the plates of elites/So why crave for peace/and live life unfed/when equality could be getting even instead.' No rewriting the books here, but plenty of urgency, violence and anger to make that completely irrelevant.

  You can hear Blood Sport here: https://protocolbrownbois.bandcamp.com/album/bloodsport 

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