Album Review: Children’s Hard Times

Children

Hard Times Hangin’ at the End of the World

Kemado

Metal has developed a reputation for being, well, a bit extreme. From triple-neck guitars to quadruple-drum bass kicks to frontmen who carve inverted crosses into their foreheads (I’m looking at you, Deicide dude), the genre constantly caricatures itself.

Children bring us back down to earth, reminding us that at the heart of heavy rock and roll is, of course, rock and roll. Tough but not evil, loud but not deafening, Children want to get your toes tapping - not bludgeon you to death.

Most of the half-dozen songs on the NYC trio’s debut LP are long, but don’t freak out: As soon as Children get bored playing around with a riff, they swiftly shift to the next one. The band is also wise to limit its vocals: Like labelmates The Sword, Danava and Saviours, their singing is weaker than a can of O’Douls. That said, fans of those bands - or The Fucking Champs, for that matter - have found their next source of sweaty, succulent slab-itude.

-Kurt Orzeck

Other voices:

TheEndofIrony.net [http://www.theendofirony.net/2009/05/album-review-children-hard-times-hangin.html] digs it too: “This simply just isn’t a record that you take home to Mother.”

Love Shack, Baby [http://love.apt6d.com/2009/05/29/children-hard-times-hangin-at-the-end-of-the-world-power-spirit-new-video/] also finds it “palatable.”