Outburst at City Gardens delivering it The Hard Way, Photo: Ken Salerno
Considering Outburst took this poll and seems to have beaten the life out of the competition with it, I thought I'd turn to the biggest Outburst fan I know, Ed McKirdy, and let him chime in for these results. -Tim DCXX
The minute Tim told me DCXX was taking a favorites poll with Where The Wild Things Are as the subject, one name instantly came to mind: Outburst. The Outburst tracks on this comp are so hard, so pissed, so undeniably brutal… it almost isn’t even a fair fight.
From the heavily-reverbed, tribal-like drum intro pounding into the chainsaw distortion of the opening riff of “The Hard Way,” Outburst has already decimated the competition. Add in Brian D’s throat shredding vocals, pissed as fuck lyrics, and the brilliant backwards tape effect into the chorus; you have the best song on the comp. Period.
Outburst at City Gardens, Photo: Ken Salerno
“Controlled,” while not rising to the heights of "The Hard Way,” easily takes the number two slot with its crushingly-austere, mid-tempo mosh opening (featuring doubled vocals over the intro - another cool production choice), up-tempo while still violent verses, shifting gears into a heavy payoff return-to-intro mosh towards the end of the song.
The Outburst songs on Where The Wild Things Are solidify them as one of those unique bands who, while devastating live, never quite had the opportunity to capture their full power and potential in the studio. While their Miles to Go 7” is one of my favorites and their demo is an unbeatable classic, it is their tracks on Where The Wild Things Are that finally serve to represent the band at their best, unhindered by the restraints of generic tracking methods. The production (while arguably dated and overly effected) somehow works perfectly for Outburst. The engineer on staff that day just sounds like he gets it.
In short, as great as the efforts by Raw Deal, Breakdown, and Maximum Penalty might have been, song for song, for any other band to have won this poll would have been just plain wrong.
Brian Donohue of Outburst takes it to the Trenton crowd, Photo: Ken Salerno
Outburst - 104
Raw Deal - 82
Gorilla Biscuits - 70
Life's Blood - 56
Breakdown - 47
Sheer Terror - 26
Uppercut - 19
Maximum Penalty - 18
N.B.S.H. - 4
A Raw Deal sing along at Oliver J's in Allentown PA, Photo: Ken Salerno
Gorilla Biscuits at City Gardens, Trenton NJ, Photo: Ken Salerno
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