U.V.C. – Step Into The Pit

After listening to Nasenbluten's liveset on JJJ's Mix Up program, it rejuvenated my interest in Industrial Hardcore and Speedcore. About a week later, a US Hardcore shipment landed at Central Station Records, this record was by far the pick of the bunch.

The whole record starts off with a fairly violent speech from Joe Pesci from the movie Casino, and sets the tone for the rest of the record. Step In The Pit starts with a cool guitar riff and a DJ Narotic rhyme that is shouted with venom throughout the song . Similar to Rob Gee, but superior in vocal tone, DJ Narotic's voice really suits the hard edged music. The phat Hip Hop beats soon turn into awesome distorted kickdrums. A headbanging "bassline" drives the track further, with a slow turning Hoover synth adding to the madness. There's many drumrolls and crazy drum patterns, some of which are out of sync, but keeps the track energetic and flowing nicely. The final breakdown has an excellent Hoover synth riff. Great start to the record.

Industrial Strength (the track not the record label) is an intense 3 minute excursion in Speedcore. After a very appropriate intro, DJ Narotic screams the name of this record label, this seems to be a DOA thing. Blasting off over 250 bpm, a cut up guitar sample, scratching, more DJ Narotic screaming, and psycho drums. Hard hitting dark Speedcore in the same category as Syndicate and Kotzaak.

Starting off in completely the wrong direction, the first part of Can't Fuck With This seems like a lullaby with a young girl lamenting about violence in the world ...... you know what's going to happen next: more DJ Narotic screaming and distorted as hell 909 kickdrums! The mid section has even more distortion on the kicks. The unhinged vocals used are from a weird Hip Hop track by Ol Dirty Bastard and Ghostface Killa, Brooklyn Zoo II (Tiger Crane). Probably my least favourite of the four tunes, but the harsh kicks and patterns are damn good.

For me though, The Kings Are Back is my personal favourite. The track begins with an insanely awesome live concert sample, perfect intro. More hard Industrial kickdrums slam the track, there's build ups, build downs (!) and general nasty Industrial noise that your ears may not appreciate. There's a particular harsh kickdrum that pounds the song with added noise at the end of the pattern, absolutely love it! I may have encountered it before, but this was my first taste of Speed Metal as explicitly mentioned in the track. They take another guitar sample and distort it with more filthy noise on top before a squeaky high end sound takes over. DJ Narotic dominates the last part of the track, screaming out pleasantries. The Kings Are Back is one of the best tracks to finish a DJ set with, full of disgusting Industrial Hardcore sounds that's full of energy and a helluva lot of fun to listen to!

This record is a fantastic sequel to Muthafuckin' New York Hardcore, it sounds like DJ Narotic and the heavily underrated Sal Mineo were going through a purple patch production wise in the mid to late 90's. An abundance of crazy ideas thrown into the mix keeping the music interesting and setting a standard for Industrial Hardcore and Speedcore. I Claire Wyburn reviewing this record for one of the UK Hardcore magazines, was it To The Core or M8, can't ? Brilliant Hardcore record, which in hindsight was towards the tail end of a golden period for Industrial Strength as a label and US Hardcore in general.

Oh, by the way, here's a Claire Wyburn interview with Lenny Dee from December 1996, enjoy!

https://imgur.com/a/Ie1GSOk

kings are back what a mad track i used it as my last track in sets set the place off

Totally agree with Micron- like most of sals stuff this ep is a must have. I would drop this in every set forever at every underground party and the place would go mental!

Probably the best speedcore record ever released. It set the standard for everything that has come after it. If you dont have this record then i suggest you go about getting your hands on a copy right now.