This discography contains the Japanese hardcore stalwarts’ entire ‘90s output, including songs from an obscure cassette and a handful of previously unreleased tracks. This is fairly straightforward metallic hardcore of the blisteringly fast and violently angry variety. The vocals are a mix of guttural croaks and snotty streetpunk screams. Manbiki Chocolate is not the tightest or most technical of bands, but each song is a blast of manic energy—topped off with some thrashy shredding more often than not. Strangely enough, there’s also a sense of humor and lightheartedness that I don’t usually associate with crusty Japanese hardcore. This impression may have something to do with the hilarious band history included in the accompanying booklet (which also includes some punk-as-fuck live photos and liner notes in English, along with the Japanese lyrics). Gundam references abound... who would have thought?
–Indiana Laub (Not Very Nice, [email protected], notverynice.storenvy.com / General Speech, [email protected])