Third Rail - End It (1990, Caffeine Machine)

Third Rail mouthpiece Sperry wants to be Henry Rollins bad.  Desperately in fact.  So much so that End It might as well have been titled Hard Volume pt. 2.  Indeed, Sperry is/was a slavish imitator, meticulously approximating every moan, howl and sweaty pore of Hank.  But what exactly was the impetus behind this derivative-as-hell Berkeley, CA quartet?  Unfortunately, I'm merely limited to what the vinyl and sleeve have to say, and my conclusion comes down to this.  If you enjoy the hard-ass intensity, cathartic angst and tough-love empowerment of the Rollins Band, latter era Black Flag, and for that matter, even Flag copycats Bl'ast! End It is like discovering long lost tapes.  The kicker?  Third Rail often devise songs more hardcore and compelling than Mr. 2.13.61 himself (check out the barreling "Climbing the Walls" and "Here I Am" for starters).  And much in keeping with the Rollins tradition, Sperry & Co. close things out with a torturous, slow-burning jam (the title track), that I just can't commit myself to endure in it's 14+ minute entirety.  Interesting, but consider yourselves warned.

01. Climbing the Walls
02. Cold Inside
03. You Wouldn't Understand
04. Ashes
05. Losing It
06. Hot & Bothered
07. Here I Am
08. Bullet
09. End It

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