After hours of internet boredom and reading other message boards, I kept seeing one name pop up on a lot of sites where the younger kids congregate selling a bands merch on eBay for inflated prices and people getting their jorts all in a bunch over it.
That band was The Rival Mob.
I guess I'm severely out of touch with hardcore these days because I had heard the name here and there but I never knew that this band was as big as all those prices showed they are. Face it, I'm 34 and live under a rock when it comes to new hardcore bands.
I figured that I'd give them a chance and I expected nothing but the worse. For some reason, I was waiting to hear yet another band try to sound like American Nightmare with the prerequisite "Morrissey but tough" lyrics but I was surprised with what I heard with this.
What you're getting here is a solid slab of old time NYHC with no frills at all. The pace is fast and everything sounds just the right amount of pissed off. Instead of relying on just playing fast power chords, The Rival Mob actually throw in a few riffs that work out well for them and when the song calls for it, they slow it down rather than do the cop out of throwing a breakdown for the sake of having the kids dancing.
Through and through, there's 12 minutes of old school flavored hardcore that doesn't break into the metal territory one bit. Is it groundbreaking? No, it isn't. Hardcore is a pretty limited genre that can't grow constantly. Is it a competent entry in the stagnant pool of kids that put more thought into their show clothes than what bands are talking about? Yes, it certainly is.
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