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.