Category Archives: Reviews

(review)AGNOSTIC FRONT-Get Loud(Nuclear Blast)

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NYHC legends Agnostic Front are back with brand new studio album, four years after the last one called The American Dream Died was released. The new record containing 14 new songs in a way continues where the last one left off, delivering in your face old shool hardcore with a lot of fast songs reminding me a lot of the old days of this band. The first single Spray Painted Walls and its anthemic riff deliver the right beginning of the record, before fast old school hardcore miniature Anti-Social sets in. The streetpunk and oi roots of Agnostic Front are more than obvious on every record band makes, so the title track is pure streetpunk oi anthem with main bass line being the skeleton of the song structure. Conquer and Divide is a bit more metalic fast song, reminding for example of songs written for Another Voice or Warriors albums.

The second single I Remember is sure to become one of live favorites with catchy main riff, great sing along part at the end and Vinnie Stigma delivering some vocals along with Roger. Dead Silence is another AF song styled like all the material from the last couple of albums, metalic, yet having that familiar streetsmart vibe.  AF Stomp is a short instrumental ideal for live intro. The song that connects on Stomp, namely Urban Decay is another great streetpunk anthem nodding head to old school street oi punk with great lyrics, as always. Snitches Get Stiches is probably the greatest song title I have heard in last couple of years, sounds cheesy, but AF always lived what they sang about, along with Cro-Mags, so this is great hardcore anthem. Isolated is a song about being angry, alienated and discarded from society. In My Blood is for me absolutely one of the highlights on this album being a song  about why we are all still in this music and scene and I am sure this one will also be favorite live. Attention is a song that would fit equally in Madball opus, being hard, groovy and aggressive. Pull The Trigger actually reminds me the most of One Voice era songs and I love it. Devastated is a hardcore anthem for singing along and wanting more.

This is one of the top five AF albums and one of the best in last ten years or so.

 

(review) COUNTERPARTS-Nothing Left To Love(Pure Noise Records/Soulfood)

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Canadian purveyors of melodic hardcore Counterparts are back with new album out with Pure Noise Records. There are 10 new songs on this record with Love Me being short kind of intro before Wings of Nightmares takes us into world of modern melodic hardcore with grooves changing place with fast outbursts and screaming vocals evolve into melodic catchy shouting made for jumping along at gigs. Paradise and Plague is a song they chose to make video for, and I love the dark vibe and hopeless atmosphere it makes in my mind while listening. The overall vibe of this album for me is somehow melancholic and sad, so I love it of course haha. The Hands That Used To Hold Me and the title track are for sure to become your favorites being for me the highlights of the album. This is modern melodic hardcore par excellence.

9/10

 

(review) Face To Face-Live In A Dive(Fat Wreck Chords)

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Fat Wreck Chords just released brand new Live In A Dive series album and this time it was Face To Face who recorded their live set. California melodic punk veterans recorded live and explosive greatest hits set similar to the one I watched them play at Punk Rock Holiday in 2017. This album captured all the melodic energy mixed with primal rawness of punkrock which Face To Face deliver for decades now. I love that all the live feel and talk interaction with crowd is recorded here and I still get goosebumps when I hear fans singing the songs almost louder than band plays. With hits like Bent but not broke, I won˙t say I`m sorry, Disappointed and legendary Disconnected you get more than you bargained for.

8/10