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Badlands - False Gestures
Label: Rebellion Records Holland - Reviewed Format: CD

When you thought the Dutch skinhead scene was about to slowly pass away again you are dead wrong. Older bands such as Evil Conduct, Discipline and Hardsell strike back with new albums, and new labels and bands such as Rebellion Records and Badlands claim their spot in the scene right away. Badlands have a rather refreshing sound, and it isn't Oi! music, like most other Dutch skinhead bands play, at all. It has a great rock 'n' roll feeling, and this cd contains various of acoustic ballads. To be honest with you, this cd sounds very much alike the first Skrewdriver album "All Skrewed Up" (both musicly and vocally), minus the acoustic ballads of course, who remind me a lot of the solo material from Right Direction's Dave Reumers (Ultimatum). Lyricwise it's all pretty good as well, not your average lyrics about beers and fighting, but actually lyrics that have something to say. You see this more and more in the scene lately, and I think it's an excellent progress. My favorite song is without a doubt the song "Give Me Strength", it just grabs me, I can't really explain it, I see it as a song that's filled with frustration and emotions, guess I just can relate to the lyrics... as far as I understand those, because the lyrics of this song aren't printed in the booklet. I don't really know why, because the other 10 are printed just fine, but shit happens. Other songs on here are Goliath's Evil Ways, Hey My Friend, Nice Day For A Hanging, Hometown, Veterans and Leave It Behind. I personally think this is an excellent release, I can imagine some people might think this album "soft", but this is just music I used to love, still love and always will love, no matter what happens and I like to congratulate Rebellion Records with their first release as well, both the band and the packaging from the cd are excellent, what more does a label wan't for their debut release? The only minus I can think of is that this cd only clocks a little over 29 minutes... I wanna hear more from Badlands!

Beans/BBK - The Split E.P.
Label: Pogopunx - Reviewed Format: 7" Vinyl

Finally it's here, the first release from this new Dutch punkrock label. For various of months the first output from Pogopunx was suppose to be the "Pogopunx Compilation" with Dutch punks Antidote, Beans, Disturbance and Aargh!! from France, but plans have changed and the first effort is this split EP followed by the compilation at the end of 2002/early 2003. The reason I was so curious about this single was BBK. It are the first professional recordings for these guys, and they've really impressed me live, and besides the poor quality their demo wasn't that bad either. But wait, they're on the B-side, on side A are Dutch ska-punk "veterans" Beans who treat you with 3 smashing streetpunk songs. To be honest with you, I've always thought this band was o.k., some times I loved them live, other times they were just plain boring. Same goes for their 3 songs on this EP. I love the first and the third track, but the second track... I just don't know what to think about it. Maybe it's just because the first song, "Pull Through" just smashes in like a hammer, and you can definatly hear these guys have been listening to Bonecrusher, but the second track "Blackmind" remind me a lot of, well, any track from the "... And Out Come The Wolves" lp from Rancid, and I guess I still haven't figured out if that's good or bad. Then we get the third and final song "Hey Kid", wich is kind of a combination of both and just rocks like a friggin' Flinstone.Overall a good A side. Alright, time to flip this record around, and time for BBK! This is some really impressive stuff for such a young band, the sound is hard and is a pure combination of old hardcore punk bands and British Oi! music, what means it's simple but very affective. BBK's songs are 'Lost Souls, For Sale and The Next Step', I can't be negative about these songs, they rock, easy to dance too, you can sing a long with 'em, excellent rough vocals like bands like this need.... do I need to go on? I don't think so. 500 of these fuckers were made, 100 on clear vinyl with bloodstains and the other 400 on black vinyl. I got them both... but hey, I'm a record nerd. Get this big slab of plastic!

Bombshell Rocks – From Here And On
Label: Burning Heart Records - Reviewed Format: CD

Wow! This one totally caught me of guard. I heard they had changed their sound, but I never had a clue that it would be this radical. After the CD intro the band treats you on a fast typical Bombshell Rocks Track, but after that it’s one surprise after another. They often sound sweeter and fresher. The vocals are a lot cleaner on most songs then on previous albums and the music is even more melodic then before, but that doesn’t automatically mean it’s not a good album. It took me a little while to get used to this totally surprising new sound, but I have to admit that after hearing it for a couple of times it started to work addictive on me. It’s obvious that with this album they want to rise above the typical Swedish Punk-Rock sound. Especially the title song “From here and on” is very refreshing and stays stuck in your head forever. Most of the time the album has a great variety of different types of songs. Yes, The Bombshell Rocks just keep on surprising you on this one. The only thing I ask myself is: “Can you still call this new sound streetpunk?” Harry

Disturbance - Live On The Decline
Label: Tocado Records - Reviewed Format: CD

This cult band from the Rotterdam area has been around for quiet a few years now, and in those years I have seen them several of times, and enjoyed each and every show they did. But for some strange reason they never had an official release. But finally it's here, the first Disturbance E.P. on beautiful white vinyl. The waiting definatly pays off because these 4 songs show how good this band is, and really captures their live sound without losing professionality, because besides Disturbance being an excellent punk band this single also has an excellent production, and these days streetpunk bands such as Disturbance just need that to be noticed by "the mass". With the mass I of course mean streetpunk fanatics, and not the mainstream, but I'm sure you understood that. Besides all that the lyrics have something to say as well, still typicall streetpunk lyrics, but from a different aspect, but maybe that's just my opinion. The 4 songs are 'Live On The Decline, God Pulled The Chain, No Enemy and Addict'. It was about damn time this band got picked up by a label and I'm glad Tocado did the dirty job! I can't wait to hear a full length from these punks and psycho, but untill then we got to settle with this piece of vinyl and their songs on the upcoming Pogopunx compilation. Excellent Dutch punkrock release!

The Jinx - Chartbuster
Label: Dim Records - Reviewed Format: CD

Damn, I believe this is teh 4th or maybe 5th review I am writing about this album. You might wonder why, but I believe 2 or 3 times for Street Soldiers (even at the time we were still called Boots & Braces) and one other time for another zine (who never saw the daylight, as far as I know), but you know what, I'm glad this album saw the daylight! This stuff is just amazing. I never heard such a hard punk album in my life, this is punk aggression at it's finest! This band rised from the ashes of Mídgårds Söner, and you can hear that by the musical class of these punks and skins. This band might sing about different subjects than their previous band, they're still proud and these songs show! The cd starts off with a musical intro from "Johnny Comes Marching Home", very bombastic and hasn't got jack shit to do with punkrock, but after that it's just an explosion of aggrassive punkrock and it kicks off with one of my all-time favourite songs "Jinx Army", you can't go wrong in a song where you scream "Fuck Crass!". Other songs are Chartbuster, All The Way, Dragonchase, War, Never Run, Exploited and We Won't Change, all great on to pogo, slam and sing a long with. After all the fireworks there's time for a ballad on this cd as well, called "Love's Just For Fools", also an amazing track and contains music originally used by Mídgårds Söner, a great song to end this cd. If you are into old UK '82 bands than this should be your cup of tea.

NRA - New Recovery
Label: Konkurrent - Reviewed Format: CD

These Dutch punks are doing this trick for quite some years now, and New Recovery is their latest effort. Over the years they evolved from a average skatepunk band to a mature punkrock band with some hardcore influences, none the less I've always liked this band, because their cd's just listen away really easy, I don't know how to explain, and on top of that I've always digged Aziz's voice. After their little adventure on Virgin Records they are back on a independent label and deliver their best cd to date with 18 songs in less than 31 minutes. Some of my favorites are Damnation, Keep Falling, Choke, Cage, Mismatch, Traitor, New Recovery, Story, Sidewalk Surfer and Math. Fans from Face To Face, melodic H2O and other bands in the vein of those 2 will love this band. If you don't like those 2 bands don't burn your hands on this album, but to me this is a great cd.

Peter Pan Speedrock - Speedrock Chartbusters Vol. 1
Label: Suburban Records - Reviewed Format: CD

Probably one of the most hyped rock bands on national television are the Dutch Motö... err, I mean Peter Pan Speedrock. After their previous album "Premium Quality... Serve Loud!", who was an alternative "chartbuster" PPS are back with a brand new mini album. Only this time no songs of their own, but covers from bands such as Turbonegro, The Cult, Elvis Hitler, Misfits and Social Distortion with PPS very own twist, that's for sure. On the song Bad Fun (The Cult) psychobilly scene star Köfte DeVille (Mad Sin) takes over the vocals, and since I'm very font on his vocals this is without a doubt my favorite song on the cd. I've also appreciated Attitude (Misfits) and The Creeps (Social Distortion) a lot, but this mainly has to do with my love for those 2 punkrock bands. Other cover songs are Goofy's Concern, Can't Stop Me, Live Fast Die Young and Rock And Roll. All in all a good cover cd from these Dutch speedrockers.

Rancid - Let's Go
Label: Epitaph Records - Reviewed Format: Double 10"

Without a doubt one of the best punkrock albums of the nineties ever made. This album just breaths punkrock and there isn't a single weak moment on this record. One might find Rancid a commercial band or won't admit that this is one hell of a punkrock album because it got released through Epitaph, or simply because it's Rancid. This is without a doubt Rancid most finest record, full length album that is, because the Radio e.p. on Fat Wreck was the best vinyl they ever put out and got released around the same time as this double 10". There's a total of 23 songs on here, and like I said before, not a weak track between them. Great up-tempo streetpunk with amazing bass loops, great sing a longs and of course the terrific vocals from Tim Armstrong, Lars Frederiksen and Matt Freeman. Just listen to songs such as Nihilism, Radio, Side Kick, Tenderloin, Let's Go, As one, Gunshot, I Am The One, Gave It Away, Black & Blue, Dope Sick Girl, Solidarity, Midnight, Name and 7 Years Down and you'll know what I mean, but aaah, what am I saying, everyone already has this album, but a classic nonetheless. Comes in a great double 10" set on white vinyl and gatefold sleeve containing lyrics and flyers. If you don't have this one... die!

Razorblade - Spreading Fear
Label: Rebellion Records Holland - Reviewed Format: CD

As you can see on top of this page I was really enthousiastic about the first release from Rebellion Records of the new band The Badlands, now Rebellion brings us another new band, Razorblade. It's the band from label owner Wouter who also happen to play in the Dutch "streetcore" band Squalor, but with Razorblade he's doing things slight different. Razorblade play pure Oi! music, so you know what that means, great melodies, sing a longs, hard hitting songs, real lyrics and a brutal voice, with other words this band has everything you wan't and what you expect from an Oi! band. I was actually surprised when I heard this album for the first time, I heard some good things about it, but I didn't thought this cd would immediatly turn out to be one of Holland's finest skinhead bands. There's a total of 12 songs on this album, one of them is the intro, a instrumental track (P.F., don't know what that stands for...), a song with Dutch lyrics (Gehaat & Veracht translated that means "Hated & Despised" and deals about how the Dutch media blows everything up in the news etc... about skins, refreshing to hear a track like this in Dutch) and a cover from Condemned 84 (Teenage Slag). Other songs are Cold Stares, Peadophile, Spreading Fear, Made In Holland, Parasite and Badland Skins. The booklet looks nice and well taken care of and has 9 lyrics in it plus a bunch of pictures. Fantastic Oi! album out of Holland and a must have for the fans of bands such as Discipline, Forbidden Rage and Condemned 84!

Reaching Forward - Burning The Lies
Label: Reflections Records - Reviewed Format: CD

I've always liked this band's music and saw them several times live already, but I never bothered to buy anything by them, I don't know why, but I finally took the time to buy this cd, and what can I say? This is great stuff. Most of the members are straight edge, but I don't hear any type of preaching or whatever through their lyrics, just pure old school hardcore the way it's ment to be, and they're good at it. The sing a longs, the breaks, the mosh parts, they're all there in songs such as Torn Apart, I Won't Deny, Melted Minds, Until I Forget, Face The Truth, Cage, Take It Back and Empty Inside. It was already a fact that Holland produced a lot of good hardcore bands, in any style, and Reaching Forward just proves that point. The cd is packed with a nice booklet that has plenty of photo's, shots of flyers and lyrics to all the songs, too bad these guys split up...

Rude & Visser - Red Rum
Label: Grover Records - Reviewed Format: CD Single

Everybody can stop their crying about the loss of Holland's greatest ska band of all time Mr. Review, because the two "master minds" behind Mr. Review are back with a whole new crew of musicians (some ex Mr. Review as well) to turn the clubs and dancehalls upside down again with their almost, and if not almost, perfect blend of ska, rocksteady and a tiny bit of soul to make the picture complete. I'm not too keen on ska, but Mr. Review was always one of my favorites, and because of the simple fact this is basicly the "new" Mr. Review, Rude & Visser can easily be added to the list of ska bands that I like. The only minus about this release is that it's only a single cd, because the four songs When Feelings Run Too High, Fear The River, Shake And Shiver and Letter In The Mail make me wish this was a full length release. I didn't get a biography with this cd, so I don't know if it's some kind of teaser for a full length album that will come out later, but I guess time will tell. Check their website www.rudeandvisser.nl for more information. Great mini cd!

The Skreppers - Hedonist Hellcats
Label: Low Impact Records - Reviewed Format: CD

I was kind of suprised when I heard this cd for the first time, for several reasons. First reason was because it wasn't what I expected it to be, second reason because I thought the music was kind of "weird" when I heard the album for the first time and the third reason was because I liked it. I expected a psychobilly record (mainly because of the description in the biography and because of the cd title) but instead I got a blend of 60's garage trash, punkrock and psychobilly (Meteors style) with a organ. This style is really common in Scandanavia, and guess where they're from? Indeed. So I started to listen to this album more and more, and the more I listened to it, the more I began to like it. If you aren't very common with this style of music it might has to grow on you, I know it did on me. 14 Songs is what you get, such as Dog I Wanna Be Your Bone, Perfection Is Suspicious, TV Ass, She's Not Mine, Swine Fever, Udai Rock and All Night Wrong. Nice cd for fans of (early) Misfits, The Damned, Meteors, Hellacopters and bands like that. Released on the (unknown to me) Low Impact labe.

Skyforger - Latvian Riflemen
Label: Mascot Records - Reviewed Format: CD

I was only aware of the label Mascot Records through the excellent cd's they've released by Ancient Rites in the past, but I never heard anything else that got released by this label, until I ran into this cd at the local record shop. I basicly bought this cd (without listening) because of the historical lyrics of this band, and for some odd reason the combination of history and metal music always attracts me, and to tell you the truth, it's also the reason why I started to listen to metal music again (I say again because I was a real metal fanatic in my early teens). Now back to this album. The band is from Latvia and sings in their native tongue, this is also a thing I've always appreciated about bands, it gives something extra to the music, I can't really explain, but that is something that attracts me as well. The sound of this band reminds me a lot of Eastern RAC bands, without being a RAC band themselves, patriotic tops with a big salute to the Latvian history. Some songs are Latvian Riflemen, The March Of 1916, Death Island, Six Days Of Madness (Superb song!!!), In The Tirelis Swamp and In Life's Darkest Hour, of course all song titles are translated from Latvian to English, and also all lyrics in the booklets are available in both languages. Don't let the logo in the booklet fool you, because, as it says on the back of the inlay, there isn't any nazi stuff on this cd. My God what an excellent release, get this!

Swingin' Utters - Self Titled
Label: Fat Wreck Chords - Reviewed Format: CD

The Swingin' Utters have always been one of my favourite streetpunk bands coming out of the United States, and after their somehow dissapointing album 5 Lessons Learned they strike back with their new self titled cd. These 15 songs are pure Swingin' Utters, and this means high quality streetpunk with little influences from the folk and country corner, in other words, great stuff. My favourite songs are Pills & Smoke, Taken Train, The Note, Playboys Punks And Pretty Things, Eddie's Teddy, Teen Idol Eyes, Another Day and Little Creeps. Fans from bands such as Rancid, One Man Army and Social Distortion can pick this album up without even having to listen to this, because I can assure you this is your cup of tea. Brilliant streetpunk record with a simple yet effective booklet featuring all lyrics plus a couple of pictures from the band. Not as good as "A Juvenile Product Of The Working Class" though...

Various Artists - Fat Music Volume 6
Label: Fat Wreck Chords - Reviewed Format: CD

Here we go again, already the 6th volume in the Fat series. I used to think these compilations were great, but I grew out of this music... well, for the most part of it because I would be lying if I say that this compilation sucks, because there are some great songs and bands on this cd such as No Use For A Name, Swingin' Utters, NoFX, Sick Of It All, Good Riddance and Me First And The Gimme Gimmes who do great punk versions of old pop songs, and this time they choose for Nothing Compares 2 U from Sinnead 'O Conner, just great and an unreleased track. Same goes for the Swingin' Utters song Sign In A Window wich is previously unreleased track as well, and we all know the Utters, and we all know they rock, so does this song. On the other side there are also bands on this cd that make me vomit such as Propagandhi, Dillinger Four, Frenzal Rhomb and Anti-Flag, but whatever. There are some pictures in the booklet, and I think the front drawing is pretty funny. Overall a nice cd for a cheap price.