Review Summary: If you like hardcore, here's your fix.
Lately, I have been saying to myself that its been hard to find a good new up and coming straight up hardcore band from my native Massachusetts, but my prayers were answered with this young band from Southern Massachusetts called
Longshot when I was handed information to download their second EP
Realignment for free. That being said, I downloaded and uncovered what is a pretty solid release for such a young band.
The first track
The Rise is your typical hardcore intro track. But you get a taste of what is in store for you. You’ll realize the band is quite heavy and sticks to a melodic feel in their craft. It also shows competency in their drummer. This leads into their first real song of the EP,
Going South featuring Brian Colantonio from Central Massachusetts Metalcore band
Auburn. In this song, they add a southern tinge to their song which they pull off pretty well. If you’re a hardcore guitar junkie, you’ll certainly get your fix with this song. The album starts off with some spastic bursts of fury from their guitarists and after the southern influenced Breakdown is a pretty good Solo for hardcore standards.
Off Track and
The Fall are the next songs on this EP.
The Fall displays a pretty strong and groovy breakdown, but it is likely the most forgettable song on the album. Off Track features some pretty strong lyrical pieces that have some great flow as “Its not that ***ing hard, to live with some conviction, but still you stay a walking contradiction,” after this lies another fast paced solo comparable to those seen in Speed Metal compositions.
Words To The Wise opens in a way similar to bands like Champion or Comeback Kid with soaring guitars and gang vocal chants. The fast pace of the song really displays the talent of the drummer accompanied by the obviously talented guitarists. The clean vocals given by Josh Herzer of
Lions Lions truly fit the spirit of the song well. The final song
Over And Out continues to deliver the tenacity in the previous songs, but like
The Fall it fails to deliver anything memorable.
The EP has its flaws though. One big issue to get over is the bass, its hard to hear and sometimes nonexistent throughout the duration of the album, and as mentioned some of the songs are not as memorable as the others.
With that aside,
Longshot definitely displays some talent and competency to make quite a buzz in the upcoming years. If you’re into hardcore, I definitely recommend this album to you.
www.facebook.com/longshotma
