Pure, furious, edgy and old-school hardcore. There is nothing fancy, nothing meaningless, nothing just to fill in or fill up, but brutal riff, energy and honest, reasonable anger. And while honesty and being not a clown of the media and a dumb trend follower it’s quite rare, almost exceptional nowadays, Backtrack is an exceptional band with roots both back to punk and metal.
The Long Island bangers are stepping in the footsteps of their predecessors as Minor Threat, Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Biohazard – and delivering some raging anthems filled with killer riffs and upbeats. Let’s be honest! Nobody want to re-invent the hardcore, there is no secret, underground revolution going on, fans just want some loud and headbangable songs and pretty much that’s what Backtrack delivers more then fairly. Read more Backtrack – Lost In Life (2014)
Mike Muir and his gang of suicidal maniacs are back!! This is the 13th Suicidal Tendencies release (although, the ninth studio album), with 13 new songs, 13 years since the last album (“Free Your Soul and Save My Mind” released in 2000), but the first without guitarist Mike Clark since 1987’s “Join the Army”. And it’s ferocious! Right between the classic Suicidal maniacal grindings and the killer Infectious Grooves flavour. As always. Although, last time was a lifetime ago and probably most of the nowadays headbanger kids don’t have a clue what the heck I’m talking about.
Jamey Jasta and his killing machine are back with their sixth studio album. “Put It To the Torch” explodes literally and the merciless butchery begun. With solid roots back to Pantera, Sepultura and Machine Head, this is a dangerously groovy and modern metal mixed with brutal and intense hardcore. “Honor Never Dies” could easily fit in on any Cro-Mags, Biohazard, Madball or Sick of It All album. And everything after it’s a furious, unstoppable mixture of hardcore intensity and brutal, bone cutter metal riffs and the nervous, spitting vocals of Jamey Jasta.
Brutal, raw, merciless hardcore punk. Nothing fancy, nothing polite, nothing for the sake of the compromise, no sell-out. Singer Frank Carter left Gallows in July 2011 and former Alexisonfire guitarist/vocalist Wade MacNeil replaced Carter in August 2011. The result of this fresh blood infusion, the third Gallows’ album it’s a very nervous, very intense, aggressive and loud record. No fills, no breaks, no This “new” Gallows are picking up from where The Exploited left out, although this is less metal flavored and heavily hardcore fueled punk with a good sense of Brit indie rock infusion. “Outsider Art” it’s an excellent sing-a-long type of punk rock anthem with a brutal hardcore breakdown. Simple and brilliant. Memorable and brutal. And this spirit it’s running throughout the veins of all the 11 tracks of the new release and grinding you into the ground. Can run, but can’t hide, Gallows will get you! 
When music becomes boring, going back to the roots it’s always an option. And the ninth studio album by 
Originally recorded in 1981 in Sound City Studios, California, titled simple “The Record” and released by Slash Records on May 16, 1982, and it’s definitively one of the pillars of modern Hardcore, a milestone of Punk/Metal/Hardcore colored brilliantly with Blues/Jazz and all sort of unexpected, out of patterns inflections and infusions. So, why would Lee Ving decide to re-record it 3 decades away? One possible explanation might be a shity record deal with Slash and a better deal signed now with The End Records and the 30 years anniversary may be a great opportunity for some smooth and simple cashing-in. Anyway, this band and the original album deserves both respect and celebration. This re-recorded version surprisingly sounds pretty raw, the few small changes do not really makes any difference and as always, if you want the best, go back to the original.
Punk ain’t dead. Even more, the present it’s intense and murderous and definitively there are more then simple hopes for a future. And this is genuine Punk, I mean, not that soap-box/bubble-gum, Californian sun-burnt and Pop flavored “Punk” which the media and the multinationals selling for decades now. “Descending Light” explode like a grenade and the whole “Future Ruins” it’s a killer spiral of energy and aggression. With roots back to Black Flag, Minor Threat and Dead Kennedys, but related to contemporary challengers such as Gallows and Converge merging brutality and intensity, Hardcore energy and Post-Metal rawness, History of the Hawk delivered a truly unique and own flavored, pounding and crushing Punk album. It’s fresh, it’s furious, it’s colorful and re-inventing the heritage of the past to send it right into the future. 
Extremely noisy and contorted, settled in the trend of wobbling and killer drops of nowadays raging Dubstep, “Monsters Vol. 3” will definitively slaughter down not only your wall to wall neighbors, but the whole neighborhood.
In this age of communication and comfort, when public relation it’s more important then content and conformity killed creativity, art is an act of suicide. So, you must be crazy if you’re starting a band, if you start painting or writing poetry these days.
