I'm not gonna lie, I'm really not big on bands doing releases where they re-record their old songs with their new lineups and a modern sound. Even if the end result sounds great, it just lacks the feeling of the original versions, and I'd prefer the historical value of an original recording over a more forceful modern day rendition any day. And in this case the band didn't even re-record that much of their earliest, most historically significant material. A lot of these songs were originally released in the 90's. In fact, of the 22 tracks, a total of only seven come from the band's first two seminal records: "Back on the Map" and "Step on It". A whopping five tracks come from 1990's "Sudden Death Overtime", and four more from 1995's "16 Valve Hate". The 90's are also represented by a few songs from "Old Tyme Hardcore", "Unconsciousness", and "Blast Furnace". Also included are two new tracks: The anti-rap metal "Crossover Sucks", and the blunt "Shoot Charlton Heston". The new songs are actually pretty damn good, and I'm not saying that "Sudden Death Overtime" or any of that other material was bad, but god damn... when your band has been around as long as Slapshot has, if you're going to re-record a bunch of songs, why even waste your time with material that's from 1990 to 1996 when you could just redo your first two records or something? I don't know... There's also some CD-Rom stuff with a couple of videos, a gallery of flyers, and website links, but that stuff isn't that exciting either. They did nail a good sound for this record, though. I'll give 'em that. Everything is mixed evenly, the tones are pretty full, etc. Aside from the fact that absolutely none of the lyrics are included, the layout is awesome. Slapshot has always had some of the best iconographic imagery in hardcore (just check out the menacing hockey mask on the cover), and a couple of those examples are included herein... as well as a shitload of backstage laminates and tons of photos from all stages of the band's history (live and otherwise). Interspersed with all of the images are some extensive liner notes that sort of give a brief but rather informative history of the band from their formation to the present. I myself would have preferred to see the lyrics included as well, but they've still done a good job of documenting the band here. But the bottom line is that I honestly don't see the real point in this release. All of the band's early material has been reissued on CD, and while I'm not exactly sure how hard it is to find that stuff these days, I think that the original recordings are far more relevant than what we have here. I mean, yeah... you're damn right Slapshot is legendary at this point, and they're synonymous with Boston hardcore, but I still can't find much relevance in this CD.
[Bridge Nine]
Running time - 51:48, Tracks: 22
[Notable tracks: Crossover Sucks, Chip on My Shoulder, Say Goodbye, No Friend of Mine, In Your Face, 16 Valve Hate]
Bridge Nine Records - http://www.bridge9.com
