CoC : Stampin' Ground - An Expression of Repressed Violence : Review

Stampin' Ground - _An Expression of Repressed Violence_
(Century Media, 1998)
by: Paul Schwarz (8 out of 10)

Stampin' Ground, though signed to Century Media's hardcore subsidiary Kingfisher, owe as much to Slayer or Exodus as they do to Minor Threat or Agnostic Front. It is funny how musical leanings seem to go round in ever-decreasing circles. To create thrash, pioneers like Slayer combined the speed and intensity of hardcore with the technicality and crunch of metal. Now, SG and their ilk have plundered the metallic crunch of Slayer's style of thrash and twinned it with hardcore's direct approach, especially to lyric writing. Scene speculating aside, in _AEoRV_ Stampin' Ground have produced a very confident second album. With solid, though standard, songwriting and Andy Sneap's crisp production, _AEoRV_ proves to be a bulldozer of a record. From beginning to end, it is bludgeoning without mercy. One of its assets is the technical ability shown by SG's drummer. In songs like "My Will Be Done" and "The Death You Deserve", he busts the kit with precision, variation and technicality. If SG keep improving at the rate they have been, then the future bodes well for them.

(article published 16/1/1999)

ALBUMS
11/20/2000	A Cantwell	8	Stampin' Ground - Carved From Empty Words

GIGS
6/8/2003	A Lineker	The Haunted / Stampin' Ground / December	Marco Aro Dances for the Cat People