Check out the new BACKFIRE! song and video - Where We Belong

   Dutch hardcore veterans Backfire! are bringing out a new mini album in the new year entitled Where We Belong on Strength Recs. From it, they release a music video for its title track. It's straight up pure hardcore spirit! Nuff said..

Faith No More release cool video for Sunny Side Up

   I've been meaning to review the latest Faith No More album, Sol Invictus. It's garnered mixed reviews from fans and critics alike, but the essence of the band is still there throughout.

This track, Sunny Side Up, is from the more lounge side of the band but still has that trademark creepy-yet-soothing Patton touch to it. The video, directed by Joe Lynch, is a simple yet effective concept, bringing to mind the Bloodhound Gang video for Fire Water Burn or any video that has involved pensioners acting as the band. (For some reason, examples slip my mind but I'm sure they exist. Comment below if you know of any.)

Sol Invictus is out now on Reclamation/Ipecac Recordings.

New Found Glory get help from fans on new video

 Yesterday, October 9th, pop punk legends New Found Glory released their Resurrection: Ascension album, a rerelease of last year's Resurrection,  through Hopeless Records. The album features two new tracks, two re-workings (with guest vocalists etc..) and bonus acoustic tracks. 

  Ready and Willing II is a re-working of Ready and Willing, simply with an added array of guest vocalists:

Ryan Key (Yellowcard)
Mike Herrera (MXPX)
Chris DeMakes (Less Than Jake)
Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional)
Chris Conley (Saves The Day)
Matt Pryor (The Get Up Kids)
Brianna Collins (Tigers Jaw)
Mark Hoppus (Blink 182)
Garrett Dale (Red City Radio)
David Wood (Down to Nothing)

  The video for the track features bands (mostly amateur bands) playing and singing along to the track in their bedrooms, garages, schools, practice rooms...anywhere, really. (All bands are listed in the info of the video.) We also get treated to karaoke style captions. It's a fun and interesting video, as was the original video, which had a premise of the band, played by younger actors, coping with fame and the media. This one leaves more of a focus on the music and the lyrics without trying to be too clever, which makes it a subtle yet entertaining delight.



Original video.

Live Review: Hardcore Attack! @ Tachles Bar [Thursday 1st October 2015]

DUST

03 (Efes Shalosh)

Dam Al Zona

Sick Society

Tonight, I come to Tachles Bar in south Tel Aviv for a night of some of Israel's up and coming hardcore bands, including a band I haven't seen or even heard of before.

Sick Society

   First up is fairly new thrash influenced band, Sick Society. I've seen them at least a couple of times before but wasn't really into it. The last time that I remember was at the Zimmer and the whole set was a bit of a mess. Their drummer, Andrey, just wasn't on point; unable to keep tempo and sloppy fills which thus made everything sound very mediocre. By tonight's performance, the band has certainly done some hard work. Andrey's playing is tight, showcasing some impressive blast beats, and the sound over all is better than before.
 They might not be doing anything new but there are parts that make me nod my head and other parts that get a lot of the fans tonight going berserk. Songs like All Nazis Are Bastards and Black Penguin Society are more in the vein of simple street/crust punk, making them sound like many of the other Russian/Israeli bands out here. Other songs such as crowd favourite, The Slaughter, has a more crossover backbone and sounds especially impressive tonight.
  Guitarist, Johnny, plays some really old school style solos which, when he gets them perfect, fit really well and help them stand out a little bit more. Frontman, Alon, looking as thrash as possible, might not have anything unique about his vocal style or presence, but he loves the music and he loves the crowd. He shows that by crowd surfing, managing to return to the stage just in time to continue the song. He also brought a bit of fun to the party at the very beginning by wearing a Lucha Libre mask, but that quickly lost its charm, as it pretty much always does.
  My views on Sick Society have changed slightly and I definitely enjoyed them more tonight than before, they're just not interesting enough right now, although newer songs, The Dancing Monkey and "The Last Song", do show potential and progress.

3/5

Dam Al Zona

   Here's the band I'd never heard of before. Dam Al Zona (lit. Blood On A Whore), are a four piece from Tel Aviv who simply play some crazy shit. They look like they should be playing old school death metal but, instead, have that crust/early hardcore punk sound. The songs seem to be mostly in Hebrew, and due to live vocals for this sort of stuff being generally quite unclear, I couldn't tell you much about what they were talking about, but the songs are short, fast and chaotic.
  Frontman, Yuval, brings some hardcore punk ethos to the performance. He verges on the line of GG Allin, stripping off to his underwear, banging his head with the mic and even letting crowd members kick him and jump on him while he writhes about on the floor covered in (what I hope was) beer. Sometimes, the time keeping on the whole wasn't also kept in check, but it was certainly an energetic live performance worth seeing.

3/5

03

   I've written a bit about 03 (Efes Shalosh) before. They're one of those bands that I've grown to like more and more over time. Especially since taking on guitarist Lemmy (Sintax), the whole stage performance and even the sound are somehow both much tougher. 
   Frontman Jenia has always been consistent. He has sung for both Instinct and Brutal Assault (maybe even others) and his vocal style hasn't changed. Luckily, 03 are musically more metal than the previous bands and thus doesn't just sound like a carbon copy of either one of them. He moves about the floor space, trying to get crowd members riled up and ready to move, which always helps in a performance.  

  No Racism is currently the band's stand out track, with cool grooves and some great "chugs" in the middle. They have more songs in their set than before and the newer ones sound even tougher. Comparisons to bands like Terror and Death Before Dishonour are obvious, although I'm eagerly awaiting the band's upcoming album to hear what else they have to offer. 

4/5

DUST

   Dust! How many frickin' times have I seen Dust now? I can't even count. Over the last few months, I've must have seen them at least once a week (I just didn't bother writing about it.) Yet another band who are meant to be releasing an album soon, these guys and their mix of unconventional stoner time signatures and hardcore aggression just gets me every time. They still practically do the same set over and over again, which, for a band who has to have been around now for at least 2 years already, you'd think would have expanded a little bit more. There are some new songs, but they're harder to get into. I'm ok with odd time signatures but when a song doesn't really settle into a groove, it's hard to follow and enjoy it. That's the feeling I get with some of the newer songs. That being said, I can't wait to hear the new album. 

4.5/5

All photos by Sharon Ronen