Skip to content
The latest from FRIED EGG, a six minute exercise of tense and spastic hardcore punk. Following the off-beaten tread of their debut 7" flexi, the three new cuts on Delirium wind even tighter and further left-of-centre. Side A boasts two schizoid hardcorepunk bursts, backed with the ugly, self-loathing dirge that forms “Eggshells”. The fluid instrumentation and anxious, spit-laden vocals capture the same uneasy and warped state of mind evident in the mugshots laid out across the picture sleeve. FRIED EGG deliver a perfectly delirious EP of hardcore punk from the outer-limits of Virginia.
Our take: Fried Egg are simply impeccable. As with their earlier flexi, everything about their debut on hard vinyl is beyond reproach, from the simple, elegant '77 punk-inspired artwork to the spot-on, powerful production to the songwriting itself. I've actually been struggling to write about this record because, while I've been listening to it more or less constantly since it arrived, I just can't think of what to say about it other than that it is really, really good. The riffs are inventive, with a slight rock and roll edge creeping in some places, and the arrangements and songs are clever and interesting. In that respect it reminds me a lot of the Blood Pressure 12", another record that I struggled to write about because it took a certain strain of hardcore to its logical ending point. Like Blood Pressure, Fried Egg set out on a certain path--in this case, a mixture that's roughly 80% percent contemporary (but early 80s-inspired) USHC and 20% weird, old outsider hardcore like Spike in Vain or Saccharine Trust--and they take that path as far as it can go. There's literally nothing they could have done better. If you're on board with this style of hardcore (and, chances are, if you're reading this right now you are), you will love this record and play it to death, I assure you. But it also makes me really crave their next record, because I want to hear what happens when Fried Egg really cut loose and try to surprise me.
Our take: Fried Egg are simply impeccable. As with their earlier flexi, everything about their debut on hard vinyl is beyond reproach, from the simple, elegant '77 punk-inspired artwork to the spot-on, powerful production to the songwriting itself. I've actually been struggling to write about this record because, while I've been listening to it more or less constantly since it arrived, I just can't think of what to say about it other than that it is really, really good. The riffs are inventive, with a slight rock and roll edge creeping in some places, and the arrangements and songs are clever and interesting. In that respect it reminds me a lot of the Blood Pressure 12", another record that I struggled to write about because it took a certain strain of hardcore to its logical ending point. Like Blood Pressure, Fried Egg set out on a certain path--in this case, a mixture that's roughly 80% percent contemporary (but early 80s-inspired) USHC and 20% weird, old outsider hardcore like Spike in Vain or Saccharine Trust--and they take that path as far as it can go. There's literally nothing they could have done better. If you're on board with this style of hardcore (and, chances are, if you're reading this right now you are), you will love this record and play it to death, I assure you. But it also makes me really crave their next record, because I want to hear what happens when Fried Egg really cut loose and try to surprise me.