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Stand and Fight

Stand & Fight (2003)
Bridge Nine Records

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: FortyMinutesWest
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on March 9th 2004

Over the past couple of years, there seems to have been an influx of bands who give nods to the older variety of hardcore. Whether it’s just a coincidence, or whether it came as a knee-jerk reaction to the rise of metalcore is debatable, but whatever the reason, it’s here. Stand & Fight is one such band, and although they aren’t redefining hardcore with this release, they play with lots of energy and intensity, and that nearly negates their lack of innovation.

Stand & Fight play what I like to call hardcore influenced hardcore. You see, with all the elements being pulled into hardcore these days, it seems that most bands are playing “genre x influenced genre y,” but this band is content with using the style that fits them best. You won’t find any excessive wankery here, and this sure as hell isn’t a concept album, what you will find is twelve tracks of solid, straight ahead hardcore. Still, the lack of originality here does make it slightly difficult for me to really give this a high rating, but it still makes for a very enjoyable listen.

The lyrics predictably take on a straight edge agenda, and really, I don’t think anyone is really surprised by this. If you’re straight edge, you may appreciate them, but for someone like me, who has never been and never will be edge, they come off as little more than sloganeering. Regardless, if you can look past that, they aren’t too bad.

Stand & Fight aren’t going to replace Minor Threat in your record collection, but if you’re looking for some music to shout along to, you needn’t look any further than this. Bridge 9 seems to be at the forefront of this hardcore revival, and they’re doing a fine job of putting out quality releases.

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Anonymous (September 12, 2005)

you know i think alot of you kids miss the point of punk and hardcore.
you bitch and whine about bands sounding like old 80's or 90's hardcore.Hardcore and punk was made for fun and is easy to play to me hardcore is a style of music like jazz,or pop.i'm almost 30 years old and still play and listen to hardcore and i still love it.There is just as much to be pissed off about now as there was back in the 80's. And stand and fight are awsome and i loved ten yard fight! that's it oh and p.s. there's nothing wrong with being edge because i still am and always will be thanks Ian!

Anonymous (March 13, 2004)

I can think of a bunch of good current straight edge bands from around my general area, and none are on Bridge 9, because, well, Bridge 9 is terrible. It's that simple. Bands like No Time Left and On Alert from Buffalo, and Witness from Rochester are proof straight edge hardcore can still be awesome without being horribly derivative.

P.S. I still listen to Earth Crisis, but that's once in a blue moon.