Fury Of Five - Real Is Back

This is a hard one for me to cover. I've always been a big fan of Fury Of Five, even though for me their best period would be the "Taste The Steel" period. When they announced a few shows a while back in the US I got pretty siked on seeing them, since I never did in their first stint. On the other hand, most of the reunions I've seen so far were a bit of a disappointment, guess Next Step Up was the one I appreciated most since they didn't bother trying to do different or better than before but just played like it was 1995. So when Fury Of Five announced they'd make new music too, I pretty much didn't know what to expect.

Now the 7inch has dropped on Fast Break Records I'm still a bit confused. It's actually only a single, with a track on each side, and a download code (that didn't work) for the same two songs and a third one called "Real Is Back". The two songs on the vinyl are re-recordings of older tracks, namely "Every Man For Himself" and "Taking Respect". Two songs that in my opinion didn't really need a re-recording, but I guess every band thinks songs could've been recorded better and tighter, so I can see why. The quality of the recording is surely better (damn, it's 2015, it better be!), but it's also a more generalized sound than before. As I always prefer bands that have that rougher sound, the new recordings don't add that much for me, if anything they take away a bit of the charm actually. Nonetheless, these are still very solid tracks, and hearing them in a fresh new production still got me to put up their old records (damn, that Taste The Steel 7inch is still a banger even now!). The 3rd and download only track Real Is Back is straight up Fury Of Five, and sounds like they made it right after the last album. The rap-part could've been a bit more aggressive, but for the rest it's plain FoV, hard, raging and with solid guitarwork.

The vinyl itself came out great (as all the Fast Break Records releases) with colors that match the artwork perfectly. Not the biggest fan of the artwork, but it's fitting for Fury Of Five and has a place next to all their older releases. There's 4 colors, being black and solid green out of 200, and brown and clear green out of 100. The clear green one is a Reality Records exclusive, so contact them if you'd want one! No idea how many test presses there are, but I was lucky enough to get my hands on one! The clear and solid green look pretty alike in the picture, so I took another one to show you guys the difference. Notice that the solid green also has a few white strokes on it.

All in all, this release reminds me of the 7inch District 9 put out some time ago, Southbronxmemoirs. That one also consisted of 1 new track and a bunch of older ones re-recorded, while the older ones already had a damn good sound before. But hey, I've got that one in the collection too, just because these are the bands that got me into all of this. Really hope Fury Of Five is gonna do a full new album later on, because music-wise they certainly still have their place in this scene, that had a lack of bigger bands in the last few years... They were not bad at all on their European tour earlier this year, even though the singer was sick. Seeing them on the Black 'n Blue Bowl later this year, and pretty curious how that will turn out too!

Anyway, check out the videos for their new tracks underneath, and follow this link for a nice interview with Stikman by Killing The Legacy!

Rock Bottom - Moral Decay

I've been following Rock Bottom for quite some time now, and have always been down with what they put out, so when Fast Break Records announced the pre-orders for their new 7inch I decided to go all the way and take the package with the test press. This also came with a shirt and a cardboard sleeve cd, and was at a very fair price to be honest.

First thing I can say is that it turned out great. The artwork is nice and matches the music, and the vinyl colors look dope. Maybe would've preferred red vinyl over orange to match the artwork, or the other way around, but it's really the only thing I can say about it. The black vinyl is out of 300 while both the clear and solid orange are out of 100. No idea on how many tests they made though. Also, notice that the clear vinyl has a nice black smoke in it, always love that!

On the music front, nothing much has changed, which in Rock Bottom's case isn't a bad thing at all. They still have a groove throughout all their songs that only few other bands have, and the singers voice is one of my favorite in nowadays hardcore. It's more shouted that growled, which works well with the music (and is pretty rare on harder hardcore nowadays). It should've just been a little bit louder in the mix for my taste, but that might be because I sing in a band myself and like to hear the voice a bit louder than the music.

The lyrics are good as always, with lines as "Eternity is out of reach, burn the poison leaf. One step away from extinction, That's Lucifer's prediction, there's no salvation.".

Anyway, check out the music video they did for the track Life's Bitch and get yourself a copy of this great piece of hardcore, Fast Break Records even has a few packages of all colors left! They'll also be touring Europe in September 2015 with Ten Ton Hammer, so if you're in the area go and support them!