Madball - "Empire"

01. Invigorate
02. Danger Zone
03. Timeless
04. All Or Nothing
05. Glory Years
06. Empire
07. Shatterproof (feat. Roger Miret)
08. The End
09. Con Fuerza
10. R.A.H.C.
11. Hurt You
12. “Tough Guy”
13. Dark Horse
14. Spider’s Web
15. Delete
16. Rebel4life18

Motherfuckin' Madball. I mean, I will start by saying that if you consider yourself a hardcore kid, and you don't like Madball, you pretty much don't like hardcore. Well this is the follow up to 2007's "Inflitrate The System." And I know that about 90% of people thought that that record was sort of a letdown. I thought so, I mean, after seeing them play this year's Black And Blue Bowl, and they played some of the songs live, I thought about giving that record a new try, and well, I have to admit as much as I love Madball with all my heart, the only good songs were the ones they played live. Back to this new record, there's been a lot of buzz. New drummer (in the recording, because we all know how that ended), done with the guy that did Cannibal Corpse stuff, and pretty much since Terror's "Keepers Of The Faith", there are actually high expectations on this particular release.

Well, the first song Invigorate, is actually a pretty legit good track. Way better than any song on the last record, and I really like the words, kind of dissing mainstream music, something which I am all about. The second song is called Danger Zone, not bad, not outstanding, but Big L had a song called Danger Zone so I give them that. A lot of the songs in this record are in my humble opinion good hardcore songs. The lyrics are pretty good, but there's something about it, it doesn't fill me as much as some of the older records (apart from Inflitrate).

There is this song called Shatterproof which features Roger Miret, and man, that song would have been so much better without him, that would have been the track of the record if it wasn't for that.

One thing I really like about this record tho, is that they made two songs in Spanish. And I like this trend they have been doing a Spanish song in every record. I have this conspiracy theory that they want to do a Latin American tour to only play the Spanish songs. I actually think that those two tracks are actually the best ones in the record, regardless of the language, it just happens to be that those are my favorite tracks. (Con Fuerza, Spider's Web). Then there is this song "Tough Guy" which is actually pretty awesome, will say my third favorite. The last song of the record is a really personal song for them, as it is dedicated to Hoya's wife, that passed away. Which is very sad, and my condolences. Sometimes those songs are too personal, and I kind of feel awkward listening to them, but like hardcore is supposed to be, a way to let out the pain.

The lyric writing in this record is really well done by Freddy. It's a very mature record. And it's a very positive album, and the message is always there as usual. I may not put it at the top of their releases, but it is definitely a couple notches above Infiltrate The System, and I would dare to say at-par with Legacy. Only thing that really do not like about the album is the art. And even thought it doesn't (in my opinion) top Keeper's Of The Faith in awesomeness, I will still put this record as top 5 favorite releases this year.

A Great Day For Music

Today was one of those days, that I just woke up and I had like a feeling I wanted to listen to music, whatever type of music. I just want to discover new stuff, learn some history about it, and also come up with musical ideas, since i am a musician.

I went to my lastfm account, and one of those things I love to do is to just go to a certain artist I like, and just play it's "radio station" to see what comes up. I remember some months back, maybe it even was last year, I came across Leadbelly. Like this type of really early Blues artist, and his biography said the dude spent most of his life in and out of jail. In my opinion, that's pretty fucking hardcore. Straight up hardass, and being a black dude, in the early 1900s wasn't an easy task, so this dude was legit hard. Anyway, I listened to his music again, and got stoked up again on that genre, the old folk, country, blues type deal, which is actually one of my favorite music genres.

Then the relationship of the black people from south, to a lot of these artists, made me decide to check one of the stations of one of the latino's greatest Tito Puente's station. If you are into music, of any kind, and you don't know who Tito Puente is, you pretty much can call it quits. Anyway, I rediscovered a lot of artists I knew about, and even found about some I didn't know, and some I only heard of. And as much as I like old country blues folk, or whatever you wanna call it, Salsa, and latin jazz are just better (at least in my opinion).

This lead me to check out some of the stuff that some of my teachers in school (college) always told me to check. Well, i started with the obvious, John Coltrane. So that led me to re-encounter the name of Miles Davis, one of the most influential jazz music composers-slash-performers. Finally got a chance to listen clearly (not a bad college-ensemble-performance ) of music by Duke Ellington, and got introduced to Thelonius Monk. And that part of the day ruled.

It was already afternoon, and I needed some food, so I went out to eat. After, I met up with couple of my friends, and I wanted to get the new Madball record that came out Tuesday, so we went to the record store. I got the Madball record... looked around, and decided I wanted to get records for a lot of the artists I was listening to earlier, and even trying to find some cheap stuff, just to expand my music library.

These are the things I ended up with:
Madball - "Empire" (will be reviewing it soon)
Miles Davis - "Kind Of Blue"
Sade - "Promise"
Oasis - "Be Here Now"
Leadbelly - "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"
Belle And Sebastian - "Write About Love"

All I have to say is that I am really happy about what I got. It feels like going to History class, but for music.

I love music, that's all I can say.

The Black Pacific - S/T

01) The System
02) When It's Over
03) Living With Ghosts
04) Time Is Not The Reason
05) Almost Rising
06) Kill Your Idols
07) Defamer
08) Ruinator
09) Put Down Your Weapons
10) No Purpose

For starters, I have to kind of introduce this band to most people. This is the band that Jim Lindberg (original singer for Pennywise) did after he left the band. The other thing about this record, is that Pennywise did stay really active after the departure of Jim, but, for some reason, Jim managed to write a record, and release it before PW did any new stuff. Well, they did announce that they are going to release a new album in 2011 (and I am really intrigued about how that record is going to be like). Anyway, this record came out a few weeks ago, but i was too busy listening to the new Terror that came out the same day, to write a review of this (and give it a good listen).

I actually came across this record by chance. I didn't really know about this band until about like 3 months ago, when I came across an interview in the internerds with Jim, and he talked about the band, and only mentioned the record coming out, not when. Then some weeks later talking to a friend of mine, I mentioned the band to him, and it happened the record was coming out like that very next week, or like even less than a week, so I went and picked it up, as soon as I could. And what I also wanted to see were Jim's guitar skills, since he's usually being just a vocalist for the last 25 years, and have never heard him play guitar, until now.

The record starts with the song The System, which is actually reminiscing of later Pennywise stuff, but rather slower, and a more rock feel, than a hardcore punk one. Melodies are really good throughout the whole record, but once he starts singing, you can see a whole different tone in his voice compared to the last PW records. He sounds like actually pumped to be doing this, rather than just doing it because he has to.

It's full of "whoa parts", and I know some people don't really like these, in the amount, of this record, but I love them, and I think they compliment the music a lot in this specific record.

There are a lot of similarities in the songwriting to what he used to do in PW, but soundwise, it's a lot darker. For example in songs like Almost Rising, you can tell. Sort of heavier, still really melodic, but like said, heavier. Makes me reminisce of 90s grunge bands, or even some of those post hardcore bands like Quicksand (not entirely, but some of the riffs). The songs that you can totally see this mostly for are Kill Your Idols, No Purpose. And I say this in the good way. Because to be honest, when I first heard it, I was kind of dissapointed in this record. It's not one of those records that I liked right away. But the more I listen to it, the more I start to like it. It's kind of addicting, and also makes you want to kind of start a band with that sound, anyway, I have always wanted to start a band like that.

So I have to say give it a listen, and I don't think you'll be dissapointed. One thing I for sure hope is that they tour. I sure wanna see this band live.

Word For Word, Wolf Whistle, Alert, Mongoloids, xRhinocerosx @ The Chop Shop, Framingham, MA

This is one of those shows, that I just happened to get to, like I would say in Spanish "de chamba". I wanted to go this show, but since a lot of people know me, I don't drive a car. My friend Casper (KDC) now played bass for xRhinocerosx, and I wanted to go to the show, mostly to hang out with him, and to see Word For Word, that I haven't seen live in ages. And good karma was good enough to let me attend this show, which ended being awesome.

I got there just as xRhinocerosx was about to go on. I had heard this band before, on the myspaces, and I always thought they were good, but never really paid much attention to it. That's pretty much it. Anyway, I support my friends and I stayed inside to see them (also cause I like to check out bands live). And I was not disappointed. I was actually pumped, this band's recording doesn't make justice to hows they sound live. A good mix of NYHC-type hardcore (well they're a new york band), but also thrashy, and metally. Which in my opinion is always a good thing. Super tight band, and really bummed I didn't have money to get anything to for a shirt or something. People need to check this band out.

After they played, The Mongoloids took the stage. Honestly I think this band is not that good. They were tight and all that, but I just can't get into this band that much. I like the real Fury Of Five though! I don't take away that they play tight and a lot of kids are into them, but I am not going to say I like a band when I really did not.

Alert was up. I really have been looking forward to see this band for a long time. I was also pumped to know they were playing this, because I had completely forgotten that they were playing this. I keep hearing good stuff about them. Well, honestly, they weren't really tight. But they were good, I think a couple more practices and it would have been awesome. They did cover Fed Up by Judge. But I mean, now that I think about it, it was pretty punk rock of them not practicing. They really did sound as advertised, raw youth crew styled hardcore influenced by the first wave of straight edge bands.

Wolf whistle was the next band on the bill, and I don't have a review for them. Because I didn't catch their set. I was listening to the new KDC EP. Which is fucking awesome, and Casper sounds like the dude from Rise Against (when that dude screams). More news about this record coming up soon.

When I was done listening to the new amazing EP that's going to take the hardcore world by storm, Word For Word was about to go on. Their set is always fun, even when it's not the tightest. They always put on an awesome show. They did cover In Control for me (thank you johnnie, i'll cover 5 yr. plan whenever you ask!) and kids went bezerk as usual.

Other things I liked about this show were the venue, and that I got a copy of a printed Fanzine from the Word For Word merch table. I got so siked that kids are doing fanzines. I got home around midnight, and before I came down to write this, I read half of the zine. I left the other part for tomorrow, when I have to wait at the train station for hours before my train.

And for those deniers and shit talkers inside the scene. Hardcore lives in 2010.