Ensign

In my personal opinion, New Jersey's Ensign might very well be one of the top acts in hardcore music today. From the amazing lyrics, searing gutars, heavy bass, thunderous drums, and the awesome voice of Tim Shaw it's hard for me to think of another hardcore band that I would rather listen to.

With "The Price of Progression" Ensign adds a slight bit of melody to thier formula, but the changes aren't very drastic. They still manage to crank out 17 ripping tracks in under 40 minutes. "The Spark" opens up the album in a furious fashion and then leads into one of my favorites on the cd, "Black Clouds vs. Silver Linings".

There are two really great guest vocal apperances on this album as well. Russ from Good Riddance sings on the track "Foot in Mouth as an Artform" while Andy from Kill Your Idols joins in on the fun during "Stay Warm".

The beginning of my personal favorite on this album, "The May Conspiracy", sounds like it would be straight out of a horror movie. Loud, thumping bass followed up by a screeching guitar riff, when I hear it for some reason I think of being chased through the forest by a masked murderer, I don't know maybe I'm just odd.

Anyways enough rambling, if you've never heard Ensign before, and you're a fan of hardcore music I definitely recommend this to you. You might want to pick up some of their older stuff on Indecision Records as well, because everything this band has released has been truly awesome.