PEACE TALKS-PROGRESS LP

PEACE TALKS-PROGRESS LP

Some limited stock of the 1st Pressing Black vinyl returned from a distributor & 2nd Pressing Orange Vinyl

As the barrage of disinformation, sloven consumption, and sedentary doom scrolling hurles humankind into the bleak void of the 21st century, we find ourselves in terrifying awe of humanity's alleged notions of "Progress". PEACE TALKS debut LP offers nine scathing tracks rebuking the notion that all is well with our never ending growth and unchecked greed. With thunderous drumming, caustic vocals, and furiously arresting riffage PEACE TALKS slaps back at the corporate tunnel vision deadset on punching down all genuine compassion and concern. Unpretentious, unstylized and unabashedly pissed, the PROGRESS LP is a bent and battered nail that refuses to be hammered down.

REVIEWS:

RAZORCAKE MAGAZINE:
Blistering hardcore punk that doesn’t mess around. They’re not reinventing the wheel by any stretch, and that’s perfectly fine. This stuff is honest and straight forward, and that’s what we need more of. Nine songs that just go hard, leaving you feeling like you ran a week of marathons after one listen. Even in the mid-tempo breaks they’re still raging as though there’s no tomorrow. There’s an undeniable desperation to their whole delivery. Along with the sonic assault is the rapid-fire delivery of words that detail police harassment, the unchecked power of the wealthy, and an overall bleak future the exudes hopelessness and a desire to escape. While most of the songs are straight forward, there are songs like “Last Chance Outta Texas,” “Taranaki,” and “Stranger in the House” that raise questions for this listener. They’re definitely darker than the rest, which is saying something because there’s no light in any of the songs on this record. Are these three songs about abuse and manipulation, especially “Taranaki” and “Stranger in the House”? I’m not going to lay out the details because I want you to get this album and listen for yourself. Just know these three songs definitely elevate the album above being something to slap on to pass a few minutes. Peace Talks are a force to reckon with, no joke.

RAZORCAKE MAGAZINE:
No frills, straight-ahead Pittsburgh hardcore that throttles you right out of the box. The tempos range from mid-tempo to 1-2-1-2 thrash to blast beats with little in the way of subtlety. Loud and raucous, as it should be.

YELLOWGREENRED.COM
Peace Talks Progress LP (Peterwalkee)…but who’s listening? Peace Talks are a fairly new Pittsburgh hardcore ensemble, and they step right up with this fine full-length debut, Progress. It’s kind of an all-purpose raging hardcore record, succeeding not in uniqueness or distinctive character so much as delivering the goods as we already understand them with vigor, tightness and speed. There’s some Greg Ginn in the guitar leads, a few well-timed mosh breakdowns, and plenty of frantic fast-core. Reminds me of oldies like Poison Idea, Rattus and Flag Of Democracy, and more modern acts like Planet On A Chain, Chemical Fix and Electric Chair, which of course is fine company to keep. While Peace Talks may not have carved out their own one-of-a-kind identity just yet, there’s still some cool ideas that stick out from the pack, like the mid-paced album closer “Stranger In The House” with its incessant one-note piano accompaniment (there isn’t a single aspect of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” that isn’t worth ripping off), or the blasting title track, which reaches Lack Of Interest speeds in its opening and closing moments. There’s a ton of fun to be had playing and writing hardcore songs, mixing ripped-off parts with original ideas and raging all the while, a sentiment that I don’t have to explain to Peace Talks.

MAXIMUM ROCK'N'ROLL.COM
PEACE TALKS Progress LP. The first LP by Pittsburgh’s PEACE TALKS consists of nine tracks of politically-driven, raging hardcore punk. Not a pretentious or try-hard approach of fitting into some mold, other than the expression of anger coming from living in modern society. Everything from fast two-beat drumming to blastbeats, yet still sounding like controlled chaos. Maybe the closest vibe to this record might be NYC’s NAUSEA while still having a sound of their own. Full-frontal ferocious attack of turbulent sonic bombardment.

COLLECTIVE-ZINE
Bit late in the day with this one, but what the hell. Peace Talks are a Pittsburgh band playing a scathing, unfussy brand of hardcore that, rather refreshingly, refuses to latch onto any of today’s prevailing styles. The riffs – boxy, feedback-laced, occasionally atonal, sometimes rather rawk ‘n’ roll – owe a definite nod to Bl’ast! and Black Flag, but the singer’s snarling, end-of-rope rasp and the light-touch use of FX set them nicely apart. Tracks like ‘Last Chance Out Of Texas’ and ‘Stranger In The House’ (which makes excellent use of plink-plink-plink piano) are catchy in the nastiest possible way and showcase some great white-knuckle dynamics. These elements neatly complement the band’s shorter, more straight-ahead blasts and round things out to make for a really satisfying bout of bitter, vengeful punk rock.

THEQUIETUS.COM-The Quietus Albums of the Year 2024
#91. Stalls are set out on ‘Life Is Strange’, which opens Progress and, for its first 80 seconds, is classically crescendoing hardcore with some serious kick pedal damage, but also a turbo-surf guitar style descended from East Bay Ray and delivered by John Villegas. Then the mosh part arrives, frontwoman Krystyna Haberman towering over the pawns below, and vocals go through the psychedelic wringer once or twice, and not for the last time. ‘Trash In A America’ has a raddled barroom piano part for a middle eight, puncturing what is otherwise a song worthy of dislocating your shoulder pumping your fist to, and ‘Taranaki’ has the best ‘deathrock, but at HC tempo’ guitar solo you’ve ever heard. It’s also one of two consecutive songs (see also ‘Last Chance Out Of Texas’) whose lyrics detail attempted kidnappings: Haberman, by all accounts, has had a hell of a life, and in this episode of it she sings in a hell of a band. I don’t think there’s a below-par moment on Progress, much less a song.