Abandon - The Death Of Urgency - cd/lp

The year is 2010. The early big three of Victory (Earth Crisis, Strife, Snapcase) are all doing shows again. Unbroken finally gets to play London. 108 breaks up again. It's like living in a time warp.

Enter Abandon a fairly new band from California who cover Morning Agains songs and release a record with a hooded guy with a backpack. Record opener 'Walls' could be a song from Unbroken's Life.Love.Regret. and the other songs breathe a similar nineties metallic hardcore feel.

That doesn't mean Abandon is your next Unbroken copy. If anything the band even reminds me more of Belgium heroes Kindred and the early stuff from Germany's Veil. Both bands I loved when they were around in the mid nineties. And I admit both bands at the time were also compared with Unbroken.

'The Death Of Urgency' is a solid hardcore record with a nineties feel, but with lyrics and music that are still relevant today.

Myspace: Abandon

Ritual - Beneath Aging Flesh And Bone

Honestly up to now I haven't paid that much attention to Ritual from Germany. Somewhere in my mind I had the idea the band was a would be Modern Life Is War.

But man was I wrong. Well at least where it concerns their new full length Beneath Aging Flesh And Bone. The record starts off with an instrumental track that could be written by Modern Life Is War had they actually managed to write a song with this much atmosphere.

Then all registers are open and the band crushes all current releases with their dark, emotive and original tunes. This is better than Blacklisted and up there with Modern Life Is Wars' Witness. Only Ritual isn't about the working class American but about the lost generation of Europeans which somehow makes a difference. They also have a bit of an Unbroken thing going on, without sounding like an Unbroken rehash.

I even dare to say Ritual is a bit more sophisticated than the aforementioned bands. Yet they don't come across as a band of know it all nerds.

Where lots of bands and records sound the same. This is definately a record for my yearlist and one of those few and far between releases that make hardcore interesting.

Ritual Beneath Aging Flesh and Bone on splatter
Originally uploaded by xroldx

I managed to pick up one of the limited to 250 copies on blue/splatter vinyl.

Myspace: Ritual