Review by Jack Arkell

Daily Mail readers, brace yourselves, the new kings of hardcore are in town.

With their raucous early live shows leaning towards the wild rather than the musically adept, there were some fears over whether this oddly named band from New York were legitimate. However, their debut album has proved that they are more than just the racket that they appear to be to the untrained ear, but a surprisingly solid act that proudly throw the middle finger in the air towards the ‘pop punk’ bands that are currently enjoying a stint in the spotlight in 2011.

What this self-titled record lacks in originality (bands like Black Flag and Descendents have been doing this type of thing for years), it makes up for in raw aggression. The sound of frontman Honor Titus spitting out his lyrics over an uncompromising bass line takes you to urban, working class Brooklyn, where the inspiration for many of these two-minute chunks of punk was taken.

While the lyrical content isn’t always as challenging as one may hope, ‘Office rocker, he’s off his rocker’ Titus sings during second track ‘Office Rocker’, the rough sound dictates that the lyrics don’t have to be Wordsworth-esque, as this would end up sounding manufactured and artificial. There are no prizes for guessing what ‘Sk8 All Day’ is about, but that adds to the band’s image. It is clear that Cerebral Ballzy aren’t five guys thrown together by a record label, but are actually the real deal. They aren’t afraid to put out a collection of songs that don’t target current affairs in an attempt to seem relevant, as quite frankly, this band couldn’t give a damn what you think about them.

It is evident that the music on this 12 song studio effort is written for the live environment, and you can’t help but imagine how out of control stand out tracks such as ‘Cutting Class’, ‘Insufficient Fare’ and ‘On the Run’ would be live. The unrelenting tempo is credit to the young band, who manage to keep things going consistently throughout the entire record, never veering from their aim.