Blood In Blood Out "Respect Our Loyalty" CD
[Spook City]
10 tracks of straight up metallic hardcore that definitely has a Madball kind of feel going on musically, but it's far more metal.  Far more.  You know what that means: Lots of moderately paced chord progressions, a few faster and more traditional hardcore runs, a hint of classic thrash metal, and plenty of ridiculously awesome mosh breaks.  The vocals are burly shouts with some cool backups and guest spots adding to a few of the songs as well.  Honestly if the recording were a little stronger on this thing I'd be all over it.  It sounds pretty good, I like that the bass plays a decent role and whatever, it just feels a little muddy.  The drums sound okay, but everything else needs a little more clarity and force.  The guitars are very aptly heavy but ought to be slightly louder in order to really drive the material, and the vocals would possess more of a bitterness with some added brightness as well.  But they're getting there.  I'm digging the songwriting, though.  Simple structures, compact running times of right around two to three minutes each, etc.  And hot damn do these motherfuckers have the art of the breakdown mastered!  Seriously, be it a more intricate dual guitar stomp with some panning, or just a perfectly executed chugga chugga onslaught, this fuckin' thing is jam packed with some of the best breakdowns I've heard lately.  I bet the pits at their shows are absurd, and I don't mean that as an insult in any way!  There are a couple of Slayer sounding riffs in tracks like "Embarrass Our Name", but check out the blazing solos in "Alone" and "For All That He Has Done" - what the fuck!?  Where's that coming from!?  Speedy tapping and wild flurries of notes!?  What gives?  I like it!  "Your Hatred Dies With You" even closes with an instrumental outro that adds to the shredding leads with clean guitars and atypical harmonies that are somewhat akin to Metallica in their prime - though of course no one can come close to matching that stuff.  These dudes definitely have some secretive metal chops in there, though!  Crazy.  The layout's so-so, with a solid cover and a few other consistent areas using bold text and images of industrial cityscapes, but elsewhere there are a bunch of different fonts used (including that terribly cheesy faux graffiti typeface) and it just starts to lose its cleanliness and look cluttered.  The lyrics deal with living for yourself, respect, refusing to give in, and lashing out at racism and negativity and such.  In the band's defense the content really is more about overcoming obstacles and there's not a toughguy thing going on, they're angry without doing the whole threats of violence deal (Even though the vocalist's style would be perfect for the hardass stuff, too!).  "Sometimes I seem so miserable but that's life, what can you do?  What can I do to change my life to make it right?  It seems like there's nothing to live for.  These are just some of the thoughts that go through my mind every fucking day.  One day I will step up and make the change."  Not bad.  I'd love to see a label like Victory Records stop signing mediocre christian metalcore bands and all that emo crap and start tossing solid recording budgets towards bands like this, because I'd go fucking apeshit over this record if it had just a little more crunch to it.  These guys write some sick tunes.  Keep an eye out... (6/10)
Running time - 29:54, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Respect Our Loyalty, Life Sucks, Your Hatred Dies With You]
Spook City Records - http://www.spookcityusa.com

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