Posted on June 29, 2010 - by Editor

Album Reviews: Authority Zero/ The Agitators/ Thin Ice

Stories Of Survival
Authority Zero
Viking Funeral Records

From the albums introduction, having dug through the archives to find an appropriate Winston Churchill speech about striving for victory and united strength, Authority Zero signal their intent on their fourth full lenght by delivering a powerful and melodic yet angsty album, still heavily bringing to the fore a distinctive skate punk sound and ample reggae rock with vocalist Jason DeVore exhibiting a broad vocal range throughout “Stories Of Survival”.

The record is full of hooks and melodic choruses, but still furiously driven by good old skate punk rock from ‘The New Pollution’, ‘A Day to Remember’, ‘Brick In the Wave’ and the album’s first single ‘Get It Right’, infectious and layered and a bit on the poppy side with big sing along potential but great none the less.

The first foray into the bands renowned reggae rock fusion is evident on ‘Big Bad World’ which enhances Jason’s vocal ability and the bands influences departing from Pennywise, Pulley and others to the more hip swaying Sublime and Pepper. With “Break the Mold” and personal favourite ‘Crashland’ bringing the records pace back to full tilt while, ‘Liberatededucation’ further fuses the bands key ingredients of punk and reggae.

“Stories Of Survival” ends on a more mellow pace(but not tone) with ‘Movement’ and ‘The Remedy’ enforcing the guitar solos prevalent on the album and the big hooks and the shout-sing bursts with “I think I have got the remedy” ringing through the ears. The album ends off with ‘No Way Home’ which is again angsty, venting frustration and builds steadily in momentum with the apt lyrics “Trip on the footprints, we have left behind…” Authority Zero undeniably have influences that come through in their sound but still act as a slap in the musical fad face and stand their own ground.

Among Friends
The Agitators

I found myself listening to the record whilst on holiday in Sweden and the album instantly struck me  as a genuine 100% British Oi and streetpunk melting pot, singing about football, drinking and mates….only to find that the band in fact hail from Belgium!

The influences and sound range from Cocksparrer to Goldblade and the record is full of tongue in cheek humour, with gang vocals on the choruses delivering instantly catchy sing along Oi classics. Daily topics are covered lyrically but the afore mentioned football (‘4 Minutes’, ‘Red And White’, ‘No To The Merger’) drinking (‘What I Got In Mind’, ‘ Life’s Too Short’) and Friendship (‘Friends Are There For You’) are at the core to the album. However songs such as ‘Cyber Warrrior’ are a mockingly apt observation and criticism of modern day technology and society.

As a whole the record is incredibly melodic Oi, enforcing unity and the lead gritty vocals of Marc Van Lier are well supported throughout on the sing along gang vocals, meaning a simple and uncomplicated but ultimately enjoyable and infectious album results and one of my personal favourite Oi records of recent years.

Revelation Through Tribulation
Thin Ice
Blood And Ink Records
By Joe Kennedy

This band are what hardcore is dubbed by the media to be all about; deep shouting, meaningful lyrics and Drop D guitars playing beatdowns following the drums double pedal. If you like Terror, Hatebreed, anything fast and simple, you will love this.

“Revelation Through Tribulation” is the new release from American’s Thin Ice, and it’s most definitely their best recording yet. The band are on the same label as recently reviewed Dependency and despite their following and influences being similar, their music is very different.

This is far more generic (VERSE, CHORUS, VERSE, BEATDOWN, CHORUS.) hardcore, which I think is the building blocks of a band when branching out to try and include melodies and singing or adding sub drops and pig squeals! This is the music you’d want to listen to when you’re fed up, when you don’t give a shit and when you can turn it up!

Since I’ve started comparing them to Dependency I’ll say they’ve both got the ace idea of putting an instrumental in the middle of the EP (‘Sackcloth And Ashes’) which is four and a half minutes of proper heavy instrumentation while another standout ‘The Ghost’ has a nice little two step in the verse followed by a cool little guitar shred after. Surprisingly there is Nu metal influenced singing which I think is the best thing I have ever heard in hardcore. Props to ‘Thin ice’