Fuck yes. I'm so glad Madball's finally back with some new material, and this EP fucking kills. It's Madball doing what they do best, and sounding as good as ever, if not better. Just under 10 minutes of their patented NYHC styled delivery with plenty of hard hitting power chords and just the right amount of heaviness. There are no real surprises, if you've heard Madball you know what to expect, and if you're a fan there's no way you'll be let down. A couple of the vocal patterns have a little bit of a hip-hop sort of flow going on, there are some killer breakdowns, some of the tempos in "Tight Rope" have more of an old school sort of vibe, and "For My Enemies" is a midpaced classic. The last song, "Para Mi Gente", is a re-recording of my all time favorite Madball track - "Pride (Times Are Changing)" - with Spanish vocals, which is a cool touch. You can't lose. I like the recording. This is definitely one of the best sounds Madball's ever nailed down, because the drums sound totally natural and have a good level of density, and the guitars are well honed, with a good bass presence peeking through in the distance. Everything's nice and clear. No complaints from me. The layout's fine. The cover is simple and looks great, there are some band photos, the lyrics are included, etc. As usual the lyrics are straightforward and deal with the general hardships of life, leaning towards a toughguy edge, but in this case sort of walking the line and trying to shed some of that. There's also a ton of CD-Rom footage with a photo gallery, a live video (using studio audio) for "Tight Rope", plus nearly 20 minutes of interview footage that covers some band history, work in the studio, etc. Very cool. This is one of the few CD's I've encountered lately that has a lot of worthwhile content on the CD-Rom, definitely making it a worthy addition. If you're into this band there's no excuse not to snag a copy of this as soon as possible. Now all I need is a new full-length!
[Thorp]
Running time - 9:45, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: all four are great]
Thorp Records - http://www.thorprecords.com
