Balboa MI - MMX (2011)

Date: Aug. 16, 2017

Although this is the second album I’ve reviewed this week with the title MMX, Michigan sludge bashers Balboa MI use the Roman numerals not as a statement of intent or a beginning point, but the opposite, as a way of marking their end. MMX is a 16-track collection from Hydro-Phonic Records that serves as the final statement from Balboa MI, compiling their original 2007 demo with the blistering New Means to an End EP and a cover intended for the dead-in-the-water Buzzov*en tribute, Unfit to Consume. It’s probably as close to a definitive statement from Balboa MI as we’re ever going to get, and at 48 minutes, it says just about everything you need to know about the band: they were here, they were heavy, they’re gone now. Vocalist Jarrad Collard’s striking line drawing of a snarling dog that serves as MMX’s cover is emblematic of the overall mission of Balboa MI, and after seeing the band live in their home state on more than one occasion and making my way through these tracks, I can only say it’s too bad that mission got cut short.

The immediate reference point for Balboa MI during their time together was always EyeHateGod, and with tracks like “Cousin Fucker” (as opposed to “Sister Fucker”) and “Dixie Jam,” which opens the demo, it seems like they knew it. The difference between Balboa MI and the scores of others under the grip of Bower power, though, is that the double-guitar five-piece never lost sight of what really made EyeHateGod so influential in the first place: the intensity. Sure, the slow Southern riffs are great, but it was the unbridled and filthy hardcore punk that offset them that really helped make sludge what it is today, and Balboa MI are (were) masters of the form. “Acid Rain” (which appears twice on MMX as it was re-recorded for New Means to an End) and the aptly-titled “Hardcore Song” take the feedback-drenched churn of New Orleans sludge’s glory days and give it a flavor of Michigan’s post-economic devastation. Anger is universal, and it bleeds out of Balboa MI’s truncated discography as sincere and frightening as ever.

Tracklist :

1. In - 1:28
2. Dixie Jam - 1:26
3. State Ot Disorder - 5:29
4. Justin Collects Nazi Knifes - 4:32
5. Sonic Ride - 2:53
6. Cousin Fucker - 4:49
7. Acid Rain - 1:35
8. Out - 1:44
9. Wounds I've Sewn - 4:19
10. New Means to an End - 3:11
11. One Condom Zero Hour - 3:13
12. Black Lung - 3:20
13. Hardcore Song - 2:18
14. Cousin Fucker (Version 2) - 4:36
15. Acid Rain (Version 2) - 1:49
16. Flow (Buzzove*n Cover) - 1:53

EAC extraction logfile

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 26. January 2017, 15:29

Balboa MI / MMX

Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-S223F Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 1:28.28 | 0 | 6627
2 | 1:28.28 | 1:25.54 | 6628 | 13056
3 | 2:54.07 | 5:29.08 | 13057 | 37739
4 | 8:23.15 | 4:31.47 | 37740 | 58111
5 | 12:54.62 | 2:52.58 | 58112 | 71069
6 | 15:47.45 | 4:48.62 | 71070 | 92731
7 | 20:36.32 | 1:35.16 | 92732 | 99872
8 | 22:11.48 | 1:44.05 | 99873 | 107677
9 | 23:55.53 | 4:19.06 | 107678 | 127108
10 | 28:14.59 | 3:11.30 | 127109 | 141463
11 | 31:26.14 | 3:12.42 | 141464 | 155905
12 | 34:38.56 | 3:19.58 | 155906 | 170888
13 | 37:58.39 | 2:17.74 | 170889 | 181237
14 | 40:16.38 | 4:35.58 | 181238 | 201920
15 | 44:52.21 | 1:49.37 | 201921 | 210132
16 | 46:41.58 | 1:52.56 | 210133 | 218588

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename Z:\by Necromandus\Balboa MI - MMX.wav

Peak level 97.7 %
Extraction speed 7.3 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC ACE1F016
Copy CRC ACE1F016
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 not present in database
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Track 16 not present in database

None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: 9NdfhwSF4AHkTeutc6HMcMNz3EY-] disk not present in database
Submit result: 9NdfhwSF4AHkTeutc6HMcMNz3EY- has been uploaded

==== Log checksum B40217F9AE3BEDF435E55E374E9F04397BE93B3CF05E0DB3DE8D02BAD6BBDEED ====

All songs wrote by Balboa MI with the exception "Flow", witch was originally wrote by Buzzov*en.
Covered by Balboa MI for the Buzzov*en Tribute "Unfit to Consume".
songs 1 and 8 composed by Kevin Kitchel for the 2007 demo.AII songs Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Kevin Kitchel

Songs 1-8 - 2007 Demo
Songs 9-15 - New Means to An End E.P. and Unreleased Recordings
Song 16 - Buzzov*en Cover

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