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An old-school hardcore band from Denmark,
might sound a little strange, but Barcode
does a pretty good job on their new disc “Showdown.” It’s
free-style hardcore with more of a traditional sound. A few tracks
have a metallic edge but its pretty much straight-forward hardcore
like Sick Of It All, Agnostic Front, Blood For Blood, and Madball.
It’s a surprise to hear something like this; old-school hardcore
done the rightway. This is a solid and consistent album. It’s
aggressive and abrasive, and there seems to be at least one powerful
and catchy riff in every song. Guitarist Dr. J produced this CD. He
also does vocals for the band Hatesphere. Tue Masden mixed and mastered
this disc, he has previously worked with Mnemic and The Haunted. These
sixteen tracks and thirty-five minutes end with an Accept cover of
“I’m A Rebel.” I know a lot of people will probably
think this is cheesy, but it’s really not that bad. While most
of the songs are examples of good hardcore, nothing really reaches
above that plateau, so for me nothing really jumped out. The first
half of the album seems a little livelier than the second half. Its
like the songs flowed out of their instruments when they wrote the
beginning and they ran out of fresh material for the end. But hardcore
fans should be more than interested with “Showdown.” Rating: 73 |
