Search - Hot Water Music :: Fuel for the Hate Game

Showcases all of the band's potential- early on!!!

Campbell Roark | from under the floorboards and through the woods.. | 06/09/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"
Ok, I'm biased. HWM are one of my favorite bands, have been for years. They put on some of the best, most impassioned, most frenetic shows I've ever seen.



This is technically their second CD, but it may as well be their first, as "Finding the Rhythms" is all but unlistenable. Thus, most fans start counting here, with FFTHG: It demonstrates the band really fleshing out their sound, testing their dynamic boundaries. The singers ably back each other- the call/response harmonic shouting/screaming/singing is alchemical in drawing the listener's emotions out. Some of their best stuff is on this CD: Turnstile, Trademark and Freightliner are wonderfully excellent. Having said that, there are some sleeper tunes on this, at least in my opinion. Some of the cuts later in the CD- I find myself skipping them repeatedly. The good ones more than take up the slack. If you're into kinetic, brutal yet melodic rock (I hate all the interminable emo subcategorizations that people forever dredge up- it's ROCK when it just plain rocks people), you could do far, far worse.



Recommended!"

Would be classic, but easily Hot Water Music's best CD. [[[

Brad Hoevel | Saginaw | 12/17/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I find it suprising that this album only has only been reviewed 16 times. If more people gave Fuel For the Hate Game just one good listen, it is likely this CD would get the respect that it deserves and would be recognized as a classic.



Consider some bands that have a similar sound...





Fugazi: very similar to some of the harder stuff from 13 songs. Obviously, Hot Water Music (at this point) was heavily influence by and sound a lot like Fugazi.



Sunny Day Real Estate Diary: Similar in terms of Raw Emotion. Fuel For The Hate Game (FFTHG) has more of a hard-edge, guitar oriented sound.



Rancid: earlier albums. Not as fast as Rancid, but similar in terms of there dual guitar attack. In a sense, more melodic than Rancid.



Pennywise: circa 1994. Not as overproduced as Pennywise; also not as much Punk-pop as Pennywise. But similar in there poudning and relentless Dual guitar attack and melodic vocals.



At The Drive In. Not as diverse, nor nearly as good as ATDI. Similar in terms of genre/sound. Same sort of "dualing" vocal harmonies. same sort of barking, out of tune vocal style.







Equal parts, Fugazi, At the Drive-in, Rancid, Pennywise, and Nirvana; This is an album rooted in hardcore rock. Upon one listen it is clear this music stands almost on par with the best alternative/emo/indie/hardcore/punk records of the past decade. It is unrelenting, every song is delivered with a punishing rough edge while the band still manages to create stong melodies. The duel guitar attack never lets up, interchanging chaoticly, and the two vocalist sound good together, screaming, yelling, and chanting angily but still giving the cd an element of melodic harmonys.



The first half, namely the first 5 songs, are all stand out tracks and are truely the highlight of the enitre LP. The second half of the LP isn't as stong as the first, which is why I hesitate to give this five stars.



Though I'm not as familiar with the later work, I can say with a fair bit of confidence that FFTHG is the only Hot Water Music CD worth owning. This is a band that changed there sound considerably after there first album. Most of there later stuff (if not all of it) sucks completely. Strangly, this CD is amazing."