Review: Prize Country - Lottery of Recognition

Label: Exigent Records

Released: 2007

Prize Country's Lottery of Recognition comes off as a mix between the post-hardcore leanings of Fugazi and the dense hardcore of Quicksand. Or perhaps as the dark side of Hot Water Music. However, you describe it, their music is simply unrelenting. Its noisiness belies the band's tightness. They are riffy, but without any of the hard rock connotations that riffy typically implies. Instead, they are as odd and angular as the Fall or Bauhaus, yet nearly as heavy as modern hardcore. A melodic undercurrent adds texture to music that seems to be bursting at the seams throughout.

Prize Country have rightly focused on anger and emotion, allowing focus to fall upon their art as a whole, not its component parts in isolation. Like so many great rock n roll albums before it, Lottery of Recognition doesn't hold anything back. It's pure visceral, angry energy.

Rating: 7/10

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