Phobia

Phobia have been dishing out their form of blistering hardcore since 1993, and no one can accuse them of alienating their fans with drastic experiments. Hell, every song sounds the same. However, it's a sound you can't really criticise, as the combination of fast hardcore, faster grindcore and politically aware lyrics is always a powerful force, even in the most stagnant of crust bands. Serenity Through Pain is merely another block of Phobia songs raging full-force from the get-go through 45 minutes of mad, loud, fast and mainly short bursts of rage. They play with considerably more skill than many bands in this genre, but there is an element of monotony surrounding this band that just won't go away. Phobia annihilates on a song-by-song basis and for this and their lyrics they get a salute. A full album tends to slowly beat me to sleep, though.