Vision of Disorder’s third release is an aggressive collection of angst-filled lyrics facilitated by a wall of blazing staccato riffing guitars, wailing vocals, and a pounding rhythm section. With producer Machine at the helm, the band occasionally reaches for a melody, as in the chorus of “Southbound” or the opening verse of “Pretty Hate.” Most, if not all, of the cuts are based on sped-up pentatonic themes that recall primal Black Sabbath and the gloom and doom of Alice in Chains. An occasional slide or arpeggio guitar phrase creeps in here and there, along with a few haunting tempo changes, but it’s the swampy groove on “Overrun” that gives evidence that the ensemble has more in its arsenal than the overt hardcore trappings that are constantly repeated throughout. Though spirited and played from the heart, this disc is strictly for headbangers and genre fans only. – Tom Semioli