Album review: Going Off – What Makes You Tick?

"I don't care if you like us, ’cause we don't like you. You're a bad person with an ugly heart, and we don't give a flying fuck what you think."

True movie aficionados will spot the above from ’90s Lisa Kudrow farce flop Romy And Michelle's High School Reunion. Not an oft reached for source of samples, but for Manchester hardcore quintet Going Off it's a cap that fits perfectly. Adherents to a similarly knuckle-sandwich approach as Madball or Terror, they're at boiling point throughout this 21-minute brawl of a debut, taking a swing at prejudice (Code Of Conduct), the plod (Black White Blue), wealth inequality (Premium Dream), and anyone or anything else that needs a lesson (the rest of it).

If you're after hardcore that sticks to the point, Going Off serve it up with hammer bluntness. It chunks and bruises in ways you will already love, throwing out two-step riffs and shout-along vocals with an expert's craft, and aggro aplenty.

Considering how happy the band are to deal in the most effective bits of hardcore's playbook, there's also a freshness here that gives all this a surfeit of piss and vinegar. If nothing else, the blood vessel-bursting delivery is that of a band who truly mean it. And they do throw in a few curveballs as well, like when opener More Love fades into a soul sample, the fuzzy, doomy intro to Low Life, or the way a lurching, unhinged rap staggers through Premium Dream.

What Makes You Tick? is a furious statement of intent. If no-shit hardcore is your bag, you'll dig the way this lot go off.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Madball, Your Demise, Knuckledust

What Makes You Tick? is out now via Church Road