Bullet Treatment – Ex-Breathers CD EP (Basement Records)

It’s time to revisit one of the best hardcore punk EPs released in 2013. To be honest, a name such as Bullet Treatment always comes to my mind when I need some music that combines both eighties hardcore punk and punk rock, and the album I would like to talk about today is a pure example of it. It doesn’t get any better than this when we talk about aggressive, fast, in-your-face hardcore punk music. Bullet Treatment always sounded great, all their albums are equally good, but somehow they managed to exceed all expectations with Ex-Breathers. If you ever needed a high dosage of fast music, this release is a perfect choice for you.

Bullet Treatment were always a synonym for short, fast, aggressive tunes, and that’s also the case with Ex-Breathers. Seriously, you don’t have time for thinking after putting this compact disc in your player, and these tunes are coming directly to you like a well-deserved slap in the face. Each composition included ranges from less than a minute to barely more than a minute and a half. If you have been into hardcore punk for years, you probably know that this is more than the correct length for any hardcore punk track. Bullet Treatment unreservedly love this particular style of music, and that’s hearable in their tunes. You can’t play it if you’re not doing it from the bottom of your heart, and the band invests a lot of energy and effort in their tracks.

As usual, the band incorporates only the best riffs in their songs. You can’t even find any bad riff during the entire album. If you take a closer look at their impressive discography, it seems these guys are the unstoppable machine that produces excellent guitar shreds almost with each release. What I like about this release is how the bass guitar is properly volumed up in the mix. You will hear every low-end tone delivered by this instrument, and whoever did the mastering and post-production did an excellent job. Of course, nothing would sound so good without ultrafast rhythmic maneuvers. The drummer is the beast, and it keeps the remainder of the orchestrations in line, but it also adds even more aggression over the top with his flawless performance. I am positively Ex-Breathers is still available on compact disc via Basement Records, or check out Bullet Treatment’s Bandcamp page for more information about it.