Final Conflict---Ashes To Ashes

I was recently turned on to Final Conflict's seminal album Ashes To Ashes from this Pitchfork album review. The album review made the album sound awesome, and I'm pretty into some of the other acts from the 80's LA/OC hardcore scene (e.g. Black Flag, TSOL, Adolescents), so I had to check it out.

Put simply, this album is fucking great. I personally have a strong preference for the hardcore sound (i.e. compared to thrash/black/heavy metal) because that's the shit I grew up on, so even though the whole scene was a bit before my time I get nostalgic for it. That said, there are some pretty prominent metal influences in this album that clearly place the album in the late 80s. For instance, the track Abolish Police features some awesome wailing guitar sections not as common in the earlier hardcore stuff (but seen for example in the later Black Flag material). Some of the tracks like Shattered Mirror strongly evoke the sound of some other LA/OC acts like TSOL or Adolescents; in particular, this track reminds me of some of the tracks from the Adolescents' debut album. There are some awesome samples of Reagan-era political speeches on tracks like Political Glory and The Last Sunrise.

tl;dr if you're into hardcore stuff, check this album out.