TRC have got balls - the sort of massive balls it takes to make an album like Nation. It's a brave move to come out of the hardcore underground and make music that owes as much to Plan B as it does to Knuckledust, to add flourishes of piano and delicate female vocals in a genre dominated by bruising, macho chest-beating and to namecheck Dappy – as they do in #TeamUK – as a positive role model within British music.
If you haven’t already decided whether this album is going to be for you or not, the inner-city strutting of opening track 10,000 Hours will immediately intrigue or repel you. Those who do stay will need to keep their mind open enough to accept a set of influences uncommon in metal, but will still be sated by some truly pummelling riffs.
One listen to Motivator should dissuade any purists from bandying the ‘sell out’ term around; its pure, full-force thrashing is as heavy as anything that has or will come out this year. With bands like Hacktivist and Crossfaith opening the doors for more eclectic sounds to break into the realm of metal, TRC could be as massive as the balls they’ve shown on this brave and exhilarating record.
