Album Reviews

Hardcore Lives
Madball – Hardcore Lives
7.0
 on
Thursday, July 17, 2014 - 21:45
submitted by
Thomas

The best thing about Madball is that you always know what you are going to get. Even if you’ve never heard of these guys before (who the fuck are you?), they offer you an album title that’s so straight-forward there can’t be no mistaking what these guys are about. Yes, hardcore lives and as soon as the intro entitled “Intro” kicks off, you know this is the new Madball album.

There are no surprises on here. They gallop, they groove, they break down and they repeat. All the while Freddy Cricien barks like there’s no tomorrow. Occasionally he’s helped out by Terror’s Scott Vogel, H2O’s Toby or Walls Of Jericho’s Candace but most of the time he will be counting on you to sing along at their shows.

Is it a bad thing that there are no surprises on here? No. If you were looking for a nice slab of NYHC, then “Hardcore Lives” will do just fine with the punky “Doc Marten Stomp”, the Spanish-sung “Mi Calabra” and the überheavy “DNA”.

Tom Dumarey
Tom Dumarey

Lacking the talent to actually play in a band, Tom decided he would write about bands instead. Turns out his writing skills are mediocre at best as well.