Man, this band has been getting a LOT of hype lately. I'm a HUGE fan of this sort of ripping old school hardcore punk, but over the past few years, I've fell out of touch with that scene due largely to the fact that there just didn't seem to be anything new happening. The last band that really stoked me on hardcore like this was 9 Shocks Terror, but noone else has really carried the torch since. Well, when I first heard Fucked Up online recently, it was the craziest blast of fucking straight up HARDCORE that I've heard in ages, and I had to track down everything they had in print. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Fucked Up, they are a 5-piece from Toronto, Canada, whose fast and raw early 80's style hardcore punk channels Negative Approach and Black Flag through old Dangerhouse Records style LA punk and an apparent love of psychedelic rock and other musical references that I wouldn't expect to ever hear from a band playing this sort of fucking ferocious old school HC. Their songs feature an awesome blown out guitar tone and a unique strumming style that adds all sorts of melodic flourishes that remind me of Husker Du at times, although Fucked Up don't sound anything like Husker Du. This is, however, brutal and seriously fucking catchy tuneage with some of the best songwriting I've ever heard from a hardcore outfit, and the weird elements that pop up in their songs make this music even more awesome, with speedy thrashers turning into extended Krautrock jams, and trumpets appearing from out of nowhere, and amplifiers pushed to the breaking point with some really imaginative use of feedback as part of the songs. So yeah, the music is fucking incredible, hands down the most potent hardcore punk I've heard in years. On top of that, Fucked Up have this confrontational, intellectual undertone that is really cool and thought provoking, which materializes with their mixing of fascist imagery with leftist anarchist punk, their cutting and sarcastic yet cognizant interviews and press statements (which seems to have gotten them alot of heat from the punk scene), and their ability to totally clown the conventions of underground music in all of it's guises. So far, I'm convinced that this band is total genius, and this music could save hardcore from the bloated, cash-hungry joke that it's become over the past decade. Fucking CRUCIAL. Epics In Minutes collects their 7" vinyl tracks along with previously unreleased mixes, demo tracks and part of a radio set, and the booklet contains liner notes, photos, and flyers.