This past summer, while vacationing in California, I decided to do the drive down the Pacific Coast Highway. I drove along the winding road that hugs the Pacific coastline as I made my way towards my Los Angeles destination. On the way, I came to the city of Santa Cruz. I was stoked at the thought of being in the city, as I used to skateboard quite a bit back in the day - though not very well, admittedly. To my dismay the city really isn't much at all - nothing more than a name. This explains a lot of the anger and resentment found in Santa Cruz natives At Risk's music.
The band's self-titled debut begins with the track "You're Mediocre at Best." If you dig this track, you're going to enjoy the entire album. At Risk are essentially a Californian version of Judge, fronted by a highly pissed off version of Ian Curtis. Spencer's vocal styling is vaguely similar to the Joy Division vocalist, but with an extra edge to it.
At Risk continues with hard-hitting metallic hardcore, and at times the band gets a little help from some friends. "Heart Attack" features guest vocals from Ryan Needham of These Days and Jordan Brown of Set Your Goals. Also lending a hand on the LP are Russ Rankin of Good Riddance and Alex Capasso of These Days/The Mourning Dawn. Their contributions help to spice up the sound and keep things from going stale.
Whether they are making use of heavy breakdowns or upbeat two-steps, At Risk are doing hardcore right. One thing lacking from the album is the frequency of sing-along moments, as I could go for a few more. But when At Risk does use them, they are done extremely well. Take the ending of the track, "One Fist," for example; the breakdown/sing-along at the end is spectacular - "All we need is one fist - one fist! / All we need is two words - fuck you!"
Lyrically, the above quote sums up the content of At Risk quite well. They are fairly bitter - okay, fairly is putting it lightly. But hey, hardcore is about venting one's frustrations, so what do you expect?
As a whole, At Risk is an excellent debut effort from these up-and-comers. So while you are composing that Christmas wish list, be sure to add this album and hopefully Santa will be nice to you.
