Review Summary: just like a band's testament should be
With Resistance wasn't a band that was able to build a bigger buzz around their music, and after the release of what would be their last album,
Real Hardcore Kids Have Day Jobs, one may think they never really wanted to. Even today, in times where the most obscure band is getting some recognition in the world wide web, the band is hardly known in the deep spheres of music blogging and independent music criticism. This shouldn't come off as a tale of a band being so overlooked and unheeded, though. It's just some kind of noteworthy idiosyncrasy that happened to the four guys out of Old Bridge, NJ, since they left the contemporary hardcore stage with a rather big bang.
Real Hardcore Kids is, maybe before everything else, the bands testament to their understanding of the music that shaped their sound and what left an imprint on their seven year long band history. With the albums closer and standout, "Mahoney the One Trick Pony", however, the band furthermore settles their outstanding score with some new 'progressions' that entered modern day hardcore scene. Conformity, selling out, turning corporate ... all of these are blunt keywords in the amalgamation of vocalist Kris' tirade of hate and his longing for what this scene truly meant to him and his band back then - playing basement shows among friends, among like-minded people. While this blatancy may come off as cheesy or loudmouthed, it indisputably reinforces the effect of the bands farewell album as a testament of their passion and their experiences:
"Endorse some clothes and wear them on some huge stage/ but I'll stick to playing on floors". In this way, the reckoning provides the desperately needed edge that can render a hardcore album as distinctive and honest. Moreover, when it's paired with this passion that originates from the joy of playing shows for people who actually care, the music can paraphrase just what the band members wanted to be; a bunch of blokes playing some hardcore music.
With Resistance didn't stick solely to the main ingredients of the hardcore buffet, though. Songs like "Vlade Divac Disco" or "Sherrif of Noddingham" are peppered with a distinct screamo attitude, propelling chaotic chord changes into bold metallic riffs that push the listener into their seats so they won't get lost in overly excessive guitar shredding. There's always a riff or carefully picked interlude section that will pull you back in into the song's main structure, displaying the excellent use of the different elements most of the songs are compromised of. However, the band doesn't strive for Botch heaviness or Circle Takes the Square pretentiousness, always staying true to the all-embracing hardcore sentiment that's all over their sound. The guitars clang irresistible and with abrasive resoluteness, occasionally being brought to shape by metallic catchiness, and the drums rejoice in the sheer exuberance that's pattering on them most of the time. In "Spacemaster LSD", the bass drones resonating in unison with the sludgy guitar strokes that open up the song, eventually dissolved in a crushing crescendo. In those moments, With Resistance pull of some subtle melodies that effectively filter through the distortion, giving the chord blankets an epic and spacey feel.
The one nuisance that plagues the record is found on the way to its end. While "Beat the Chemo Joe" yet displays an excellent utilization of screamo dynamics that erupt in melodic octave chords passages, "Sonny Bo Knows Nose" turns out to be more like a crude copy of its predecessor with nothing to add. There could've been much more to explore in each of the well crammed songs that in the end it feels like you've missed something, and that it's over too soon. Still, With Resistance got their point across with splendid results:
Real Hardcore Kids is a fun, passionate and ambitious album that's probably everything the band wanted it to be ... just like a testament should be.
"I can't possible scream any louder than this.
I am the voice of the underground.
This could be my last transmission.
Download this ***,
I don't give a ***."
