Triac - Blue Room Forcefield/Reptillian Records - FF007/REP102 - May 2008
By Paddy Walsh 
Punishing and filthy grind is what
Triac are all about, and this blink-and you'll-miss-it EP (available on both cd and a nicely packaged, limited to 500 copies 7") delivers just that. Opener 'Feeder', being less than 45 seconds long, may give a fairly narrow impression as to what this raging Baltimore 4-piece do best, but
Blue Room displays a surprising variety of influences. A core mish-mash of old
Napalm Death and the raw as fuck hardcore punk of the likes of
Discharge dominates their sound, but 'Shell of a Man' and 'My First Blasphemy' throw up some interesting sludge in the vein of early
Corrosion of Conformity. There's also hints of crossover thrash such as
D.R.I. and the intensity of powerviolence to be found throughout the seven tracks on offer. Hell, 'In the Blue Room' could even be mistaken for doom if the vocalist wasn't seemingly scraping his throat off a chainsaw.
Triac have had the pleasure of releasing spilts with scene-leaders such as
Pig Destroyer in the past, and there's a palpable sense of the D.I.Y. hardcore punk scene about them that suits their black and white aesthetic well.
Blue Room is as intense and powerful as grind gets, and it gets extra kudos for retaining a searing rawness that's often missing from the bigger names these days.
Triac are one nasty outfit, and suffice to say the iconic image of Dennis Hopper from
Blue Velvet that graces the cover pretty much sums them up.
***we didn't do a split with Pig Destroyer though***
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Asbestosis webzine -
Wow. This is really good. Blasting grind violence that's as ugly and dirty as the reputation of Triac's native Baltimore. My friend pointed this out to me when i was down in Richmond for Best Friend's Day, and everything about this release makes it awesome. Okay, so the 8 buck i spent on it kind of hurt, but its a 7" in a gatefold sleeve, on colored vinyl, hand numbered, with a CD containing all 7 tracks tucked into the case ala Torche's "In Return", so the higher price is somewhat justified. That and Triac plays a very unique brand of grind favoring uncanny vocals and very loud bass. But this isn't any boring Man is the Bastard bass-heavy crap. It's fast, exhausting, and a unique breath of fresh air from the all too popular deathgrind that everyone seems to be playing.
Get this, it's a real winner.
Posted by Flo at 5:54 PM