Get Greens - Green Plague

Get Greens is a four-piece Hardcore band from California that refers (lol reefers) to themselves as “Weedcore” and judging by the infectious, groove-laden riffing present throughout most of “Green Plague” I imagine at least partial songwriting credit could go to nature's most controversial gift. You may remember hearing “Cashed” from “The Tokeover” on Episode 48 and while that's a pretty damn good EP by itself, Get Greens has really stepped it up on “Green Plague” both in sound quality and songwriting. While I'm not really too much of a stickler for production value, this is definitely a case where a more “professional” sound has proven to make a huge difference. The band just hits a little harder now, the groove is heavier, the smoke is thicker and the 40s are colder. No, this album doesn't come with party favors, but it totally should. Actually, every album should because that would rule.

The festivities begin, appropriately enough, with “Inhale”, a slow groove that calls you to the floor to open up the pit for the metallic crunch of “Bongwater” which shifts between punk and metal seamlessly, like most of this album. “Intoxifaded” alternates thrash metal riffing with two step beats to create a ridiculously catchy, hardcore party anthem. With genre lines as blurred as they are, it's almost difficult not to just call this a metal album. I'm sure someone could squeeze out a Municipal Waste comparison if they weren't paying enough attention to notice all the classic hardcore breakdowns, complete with dirty bass guitar tone. Frankly, I'm a sucker for that sort of thing when it's done right and Get Greens does it right. Throw in some triplets for good measure and call me a fan. Yep, there's a few sly triplets on occasion, very metal and very tasty. “Up In Smoke” shows the vocals switching between a gruff, hardcore “bark” and a very Tom Araya-esque shout, all this over yet another catchy metal riff. 

The title track opens with a plodding bass and drum intro that brings forth visuals of people circling a mosh pit waiting for all hell to break loose, but instead of the expected crusty punk riffing, Get Greens lays on the groove, extra heavy. Consider this your breather in the middle of the show, that part where you leave the pit just long enough to hit the bowl and zone out to the pounding rhythm. Did I mention that their drummer is pretty fantastic? Well, I should have, because he is; there are no shortages of nifty drum fills on “Green Plague”. It may be something that only music nerds and musicians like myself might notice, but I think it's worth mentioning.

“Hot Carl” shows Get Greens returning to the catchy thrash riffing that dominates this album, again injecting this metallic goodness with all the best parts of hardcore and no filler; most of the songs on “Green Plague” are under two minutes. 

“Cryptkeeper” starts as a somewhat d-beat hardcore song before down-shifting into a slow, crushing groove. Notice how I keep using the word “groove”? Yeah, that's because there's a ton of it on this album. I don't mean Pantera-style “groove metal” (whatever the fuck that means) either, this is like “Stoner Hardcore” if you will. “Exhale” closes the album with a dirge-like doom riff accompanied by a creepy sample of people meeting Satan, who later reveals that “Life itself is only a vision, a dream. Nothing exists save empty space and you. And you are but a thought” Pretty heavy shit, indeed.

So by all means, cop this via the band's bandcamp page on 4/20/14 (of course it comes out on 4/20, duh!) and indulge in the uncontrollable substance that is “Green Plague”, a crushing and incessantly catchy metallic hardcore album.