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BANE
It All Comes Down To This (Equal Vision)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry
Cute photos of soldiers on the cover of this one, and the sleeve, so you'll know that Bane thinks war is W-R-O-N-G. I hate to just bag on stuff, but I've honestly heard this shite b4. I was way, way, waaaaaaaaaaay into punk and hardcore and thrash, and 'crust-core', and 'peace-core', and grindcore, etc., etc., in, like, 1987-1991 (dating myself). I was in a buncha "hardcore" bands, and it was TOUGH to get shows. Green Day didn't even exist. They were still a metal band (a fact). I lived in Scum Bernardino, Calif., and all there was gig-wise was a lil club in Riverside called Spankys Cafe. Now the style is 'monetarily viable' (easy to make $$ off of, and easy to market to people who think it's "new"), huge, very metal (the palm-muting on the guitars for a start), and played out. The music that's coming out today just isn't remotely original (not even a little bit), and all the aggression just sails over my head. Hard? Crazy? Listen to old Black Flag, or newer Napalm Death. That's hard, and sincere. Not just some copy-cat mediocrity made by 'bros' with wallet chains, who just got outta football practice, and chew tobacco, or whatever. Now punk is all about jumping reallllly high with yer guitar on at show (like Face to Face), and having a goatee. Fuck that. I'd rather hear oldies, personally. Equal Vision probably had a pretty honorable beginning; putting out seven-inches from local bands, or maybe helping the scene around them out by doing special shows, etc. Now I just lump it in with the myriad of other 'punk' labels beating the fuck out of a very dead horse, and probably justifying it, by running the operation out of a bedroom in New York somewhere. Nooooo! Punk is still alive, guys. Just keep cranking that stuff out (assembly-line style). No one will notice the sameness. This is EVR53, which probably means there are 52 releases before it, that sound exactly like this. I'm gonna puke…www.equalvision.com
© 2000 - Jason Thornberry