AMP Magazine Presents: Hardcore is a twenty-five song compilation of modern hardcore, featuring bands ranging from California’s metal-influenced Bleeding Through to NYC veterans Sick of It All.

The overall result? Mixed.

Atreyu kicks thing off on a high note with Ain’t Love Grand off 2002’s Sucice Notes and Butterfly Kisses. Drummer Brandon Saller’s melodic background vocals give the song a texture that you don’t see much on the rest of the compilation.

The next few tracks are, (for the most part) decent but not particularly innovative hardcore and metalcore. There are a few more high points (like the bridge in track six, Countdown To Life’s Far and Away) but for the most point things don’t pick up again until track eight, Since Always by Give Up The Ghost. The band slows things down just a little, with a strong driving tempo and vocals that don’t fall into the classic hardcore pitfall of sounding painful and forced.

Next Integrity give us Blessed Majesty, off the album To Die For. The song starts off slow, with a cool keyboard effect and almost-inaudible screams in the background. Things speed up about a minute later, and despite some interesting work from guitarist Aaron Melnick, the song drags on a bit long for my taste.

NYC legends Madball come in at track twelve, with the wonderfully raging straight-up hardcore anthem For My Enemies. They’ve had over a decade perfecting their music, and, to put it simply, fucking rock.

Speaking of kick-ass NYC bands, Sick of It All give us the compilation’s best track, Paper Tiger (Fakin’ the Funk). Both catchy AND brutal, thank you very much.

The album’s shortest song comes from Paint It Black. Head Hurts, Hand on Fire (track sixteen) is just under forty seconds long. Somehow the band still manages, impressively, to include a breakdown right at the end. It’s surprising AMP didn’t choose a longer track to showcase Paint It Black, but the these thirty-nine seconds are well spent.

But filling in the space between the more interesting songs we have a lot of same-sounding riffs, overly-strained vocals and lyrics about being really, really pissed at someone. It almost makes you wish AMP had chosen to include some bands from the dawn of hardcore, or at least cut out ten or so tracks.

Chances are you’ve already heard of all the best bands on here, but if you’re into the newer, more metal-influenced breed of hardcore, this will be $6 well spent.

Best Songs: 1. Ain't Love Grand (Atreyu), 8. Since Always (Give Up The Ghost), 12. For My Enemies (Madball), 20. Paper Tiger (Sick Of It All), 21. Identity (Slapshot)



Label: Suburban Home Records
Release: May 4th, 2004

Track Listing:

01. Ain't Love Grand (Atreyu)
02. Vae Victis (Beneath The Ashes)
03. Number Seven With a Bullet (Bleeding Through)
04. This Is Not the X-Ray Room (Clearing Autumn Skies)
05. Far and Away (Countdown To Life)
06. I've Been Gone a Long Time (Every Time I Die)
07. Suffocation (First Blood)
08. Since Always (Give Up The Ghost)
09. Blessed Majesty (Integrity)
10. Cavil (A Life Once Lost)
11. Rose May Bleed (Love Hope And Fear)
12. For My Enemies (Madball)
13. Great Red Shift (Most Precious Blood)
14. Last One for the Money (Nora)
15. Patriotic Cattle Call (Over My Dead Body)
16. Head Hurts, Hands on Fire (Paint It Black)
17. Moments Over Exaggerate (Poison The Well)
18. Mother Night Revisited (Premonitions Of War)
19. Pity for None (The Promise)
20. Paper Tiger (Fakin' the Funk) (Sick Of It All)
21. Identity (Slapshot)
22. Push It Away (Terror)
23. Forever (Throwdown)
24. Endless (Unearth)
25. Playing Soldier Again (Walls Of Jericho)

Rating:



Review by: Lyndie