Recorded live on their 2007 West Coast tour at the pit at KFJC radio in Oakland, "Live and Loud," finds the Berkeley punk hardcore cretins in fine form blasting through a ferocious set of their most classic tracks. Blasting off with "Chaos Breeder," the pit is instantly a pummeling zone of flailing humanity. Scathing, acrimonious and unforgiving hardcore noise is the what the boys are about and to that end they deliver in spades. Each song pulverizes at near warp speed, full of buzzsaw gu itars and drums so sloppy you'll be certain they actually spilled out onto the mosh pit.

A while back I wrote in my review of FRACAS that the music was good, but the boys had nothing worthwhile to say. Not the problem here. CHRIST ON PARADE are pissed off and not afraid to let the world know about it. From raging slabs of anger like "Self-Serving," "Thoughts of War," and "Final Solution," all the way to the closer, "Everyone's Crazy," this is a violent belching of boisterous bile, seething with anger, spit and sweat. If there's one draw back, it's the relative similarity of the songs. With almost each one blasting off at the same bullet speed, the songs all blend together, only distinguishable one from the next when the singer takes a moment between tracks to burp into the microphone. While that may work great for getting the audience to dismember each other in the pit, as a listen it can nearly induce brain damage. At times the boys try to break things up with an out of tune guitar solo, a bass breakdown, a great riff like "Riding the Flatlands," or an actual epic song, like the four minute long "Crazy," but too many of the songs suffer from a lack of dynamic. Still, this was a disc made in the pit, for the pit, and to that end, feel free to pound until you bleed.

My only word of warning: not a great disc to listen to while you're driving. You'll hate everyone on the road.

- Severin

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