Album Review: Hood Rats “Crime, Hysteria, And Useless Information”

Release: Crime, Hysteria, And Useless Information
Band: Hood Rats
Label: Dirt Cult Records/Bachelor Records
Score: 9/10

Dirt Culture Records

Big Cartel Store

review by Ricky Frankel

For their debut release on Dirt Cult Records, Montreal’s Hood Rats have come out swinging — and swinging hard. Their 2024 full-length, ‘Crime, Hysteria, And Useless Information’ is packed with aggressive yet very catchy tunes that will have punk fans feeling hyped and rage-filled all at once.

Throughout the album Hood Rats walk a very fine sonic line between hardcore and melodic punk. “Deception” is great example of the band’s swift and rowdy sound. The intensity from the choppy guitar chords and wailing bends along with the blasting drums fit perfectly with the savage-sounding vocals. The track is a perfect microcosm of what Hood Rats and the album are about. “Hate The Radio” contains a lot of similar musical aspects that “Deception” has, but this time includes some impressive rolling bass lines. However, it is the vocals that really take center stage. They are much more intense. They’re throaty, confrontational, and raised to a crazy-high level of intensity to where they personify the frustration in the lyrics like, “They’re putting subliminal messages/They’re putting them into my brain/Everybody can dress the same/Everyone’s thinking the same thing,” just as close to perfectly as you can imagine.

While there are more negative tunes on ‘Crime, Hysteria, And Useless Information’ such as “Fuck The Police” and “We Can Be Zeros,” Hood Rats conclude the album on a more positive note with “Won’t Be Victim.” It’s a song that points out many of society’s flaws, but still managing to resist being affected by them as much as possible. “Won’t Be A Victim” is a more “relaxed” tune on the musical side. It contains some light piano work to accent the choruses as well as a hypnotic guitar riff that accompanies the vocals throughout the verses. It was a great choice to be the closer for it’s different messaging and musicianship compared to the rest of the tracks on the record.

Overall, the kick-ass ‘Crime, Hysteria, And Useless Information’ can be best described with one word: ferocious.
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