AC4
‘Burn The World’
(Deathwish/Ny Vag)
While Refused were intent on pushing punk rock forward, tearing and ripping up the rule book and starting again, frontman Dennis Lyxzen has both feet placed firmly in the eighties with the old school hardcore punk attack of AC4. ‘Burn The World’ is the band’s second album, released on both Lyxzen’s Ny Vag label and Converge’s Deathwish imprint, and continues their straight–up, high-speed, snotty hardcore attack.
Whilst AC4 offer nothing new or fresh to the musical world, who really gives a damn when it sounds this fun? It’s impossible not to get swept up in the band’s infectious joy as they obviously love and pay the utmost respect to the music they are aping. Energy and enthusiasm crackles from every single one of the sixteen tracks here. The production is powerful and heavy yet manages to retain an important fizzy garage feel that suits the bands energy and Lyxzen’s vocals are snotty and snarled, yet melodic.
Sweden has offered so many great punk bands over recent years. Bands such as Regulations, The Vicious, UX Vileheads and now AC4, have effortlessly taped into the life-affirming energy that legends like 7-Seconds, Minor Threat and the like laid out all those years ago. AC4 take the baton, and run with it at high speed.
James Sherry