Their records before this one were named “ruhrpott hardcore” and “straight outta ruhrpott” and now guess where they are from! Fortunately they don’t sound like that cliché Ruhrpott chugga chugga bling bling mosh at all. This is just straight forward and plain old school hardcore. Unfortunately the producer didn’t know this. The bass drum is way too loud and peaks out of everything like this was a metal record and the guitars could have a little less distortion so they sounded more 80s. But on the other hand hardcore is not about perfect studio sound, right? It just bothers me when I think a record could sound a lot better with just some minor adjustments…

I’m not so much into old school lately but this record is very solid, got good shoutalongs and a positive energy. Only this wohoho at the beginning of “side by side” is a bit like bad Oi!... The guys on the band photo look nice as well, there is a Seven Seconds shirt and I always like artworks with this Japanese war flag style… Worth checking out!  [jan]

www.myspace.com/positivestrike