No Compromise (CD - 2007)

On its second full-length album, this New Hampshire hardcore band plays driving, high energy punk-metal, with throat searing vocals, clanking, bottomless bass, and set-to-stun guitars. Solid, brutal songs such as "Strength" stick close to the hardcore template, with ferocious drumming and focused intensity.

Modern hardcore doesn't get more authentic than the 12 songs contained in Since the Flood's No Compromise CD. This is both a blessing and a curse because, on the one hand, no one can accuse the New England natives of straying from the genre's true path of heartfelt outrage and musical austerity; on the other, their narrow-minded vision inevitably produces music mired in stylistic clichés. Be that as it may, one is inclined to give Since the Flood a break here, and chalk up these issues to hardcore's unforgiving sonic template and obsessive thematic agenda, because there's certainly no denying tattoo-festooned vocalist Chuck Bouley's earnestness of tone (nor intensity of glare) while proclaiming his first-person diatribes. Likewise, his bandmates can always be counted on to have his back, unloading hulking, airtight blocks of metallic hardcore to produce album highlights of passionate intensity such as "Gone Tomorrow," "I Am Revenge," and "Laid to Rest." Granted, none of this will silence all cynics, nor stop snide comments claiming that No Compromise is the best album Hatebreed didn't release in 2007 (which may actually qualify as a compliment to these guys), but the overwhelming majority of true-blue hardcore fans will find exactly what they're looking for in Since the Flood's sincere, surprise-free offerings. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia minimize