Consumer Guide Album

CH 3: Fear of Life [Posh Boy, 1982]
They're too neat--too pop, too heavy metal, too defined--for hardcore purists, but these hooks come the way I like them: one recitative/mechanical handclap/girl response/sound of breaking glass per hyperdriven two-minute song. Too bad they didn't cop more of the EP (say "Mannequin" and "I Got a Gun" in addition to "Manzanar"), thus stretching this specially priced but suspiciously unclocked album to customary hardcore length. Approximate time: 22:30. B+