Toronto’s long-running hardcore titans return with a new seven-track LP that fuses their many strengths into the ultimate slab of S.H.I.T. While S.H.I.T.’s previous 12” leaned into the gnarlier, more chaotic aspects of their sound, For a Better World returns to the infectious bouncy rhythms and earworm riffing that made S.H.I.T.’s 7” EPs classics of modern punk. S.H.I.T. has always been a riff machine, and For a Better World adds “Corporate Funded Killing Technology,” “Imminent Destruction,” and the climactic closer, “Captive (… in the Mutilated Vista)” to their bulging canon of monster hooks. Like Metallica or the Ramones, S.H.I.T. writes the kind of riffs that beg you to pick up a guitar and strum along, but only the most dedicated practitioners will approach the energy of those relentless downstrokes that have lit up so many 21st-century pits. While the riffs are the centerpiece, For a Better World is brocaded with details that add texture, depth, and dynamics, like the bursts of power electronics chaos that occasionally bubble to the surface or the triumphant guitar lead in “Terminal Democracy.” Ryan Tong’s vocals also sound better than ever here, minimizing the delay and distortion effects that swaddled him on previous records in favor of letting his natural venom ring out. Case in point, the UK82-infused “Kill the Fuckers” and its Chaos UK-esque chorus: “Kill the fuckers! Just Kill them all!” If the album’s title seems curiously positive, its context as the last line of that song makes perfect sense. We all want a better world, but the only way we’re gonna get there is to kill the fuckers, and this is the perfect soundtrack.
