Album Review

The first release from hardcore legends Gorilla Biscuits is a vital part of the band's history but still far from the classic Start Today LP issued only a year later. Recorded with noticeably less quality than the second record, this 12-song self-titled debut sees Gorilla Biscuits laying down the groundwork for the hardcore blueprint they were about to construct. The songs are all rage-filled anthems that rally against drugs and bad attitudes while focusing on ideas of friendship and community, and vocalist Civ spits them out with the raw exuberance of youth. The instrumentation is a bit more metal-tinged than later work, but the angsty guitars do quite a bit for standout tracks like "No Reason Why" and "High Hopes." The record also contains two tracks that resurface on the second LP as well as two live versions of songs already represented earlier in the record. Gorilla Biscuits is certainly a call to arms, but its vision is still a bit skewed. This was the album that started one of the more influential bands in the genre, and for that it deserves a good deal of respect; at the same time it is the vision that matters more than the presentation here, and Gorilla Biscuits proved that they were capable of much more impressive work than this disc illustrates. ~ Peter J. D'Angelo, Rovi