Album Review: Terror - Live By The Code

Terror have now released six full-length albums and they haven't made a bad one yet. Live By The Code keeps this streak intact but at the same time it may be the hardcore legend's first effort that can be classed as somewhat anonymous. Don't panic mosh monkeys: this is still a solid effort. Live By The Code is chock full of all the 'Terror tropes' you know and love – razor sharp riffs, pummelling rhythms, bowel bursting breakdowns and over the top lyrical devotions to positive thinking and remaining true to the hardcore cause. But if you step back from the record it becomes quickly apparent that there's nothing here that matches One With The Underdogs or even Always The Hard Way. As good as the mid-tempo chug of The Most High or the balls-to-the-wall aggression of the title track are, these songs don't stay around long enough to infect your thought processes the way Spit My Rage or even the title track to 2010's Keepers Of The Faith did.

At its best, Live By The Code is a very solid collection of no nonsense hardcore executed by a band who (thanks to endless touring) are a tightly wound sonic juggernaut. However, at its worst this is an album that Terror neophytes shouldn't start with and that old hands will find strangely unsatisfying when placed next to Lowest Of The Low and other past glories. You can only live by the code so many times before people start looking elsewhere for their hardcore fix.