The term 'Moshcore' is thrown about pretty rarely, and normally by scene kids who's knowledge of music and Metal gets about as far as BRING ME THE HORIZON before grinding to a halt in a pile of ball crushing jeans and bad neck tattoos. Or maybe stereotype has gone too far.

However, while moshing is obviously synonymous with all Metal, I've often found it to have a particularly strong connection with Thrash, ANTHRAX's "Caught In A Mosh", F.K.U's "Rise of the Moshmongers" to name a few. This debut full-length from Italy's LACERHATE is certainly -core of some variety, but their own description of their genre as 'Moshcore' does seem to suit this Thrash influenced modern outfit.

There are some very obvious leanings towards the greats of thrash, "Wake Up" has SLAYER's intensity and rage written all over it, vocalist Franco is clearly a fan of Tom Araya's style, and all in all is a pretty good song. Sadly over the course of a short album, only a meagre half-hour, the intensity just sounds a bit half-arsed all too often. It's almost as if they had all the songs penned down, and then when it came to recording them, no one could be bothered. "A New Beginning" and "Starving Revenge" were particular culprits for me. Another song to mention would be "To Dead Dad", despite what it's title might suggest it's not in any way a sombre ballad, it's a bit more relaxed, sure, but this band clearly have a very obvious blueprint that they see no reason to change. But there is just a rank stench of mediocrity emanating from the music and the lack of variation can make half an hour suddenly feel quite long.

Like any record, there will be fans for this. Sincere fans as well. "Mass Distraction" isn't a record that will be mocked in years to come, it's a new band with an idea and style that needs perfecting. They haven't managed it first time around, but not everyone does. In fact most don't. Listeners of Deathcore, Metalcore, it might work for you, but there's definitely better stuff out there.