Risky Business

East coast hardcore long ago carved itself a solid niche within the genre and continues to supply quality music with loads of bands building huge regional followings and a growing number breaking out on the national and international stage. All the while, eastern Canada (no, not Ontario) has been singing along, but rarely writing the songs.

Risky Business is the exception to this unfortunate set of circumstances. The band’s first full-length, Some Days, is a testament that eastern Canada can represent east coast hardcore as well as Boston and New York -- if only in quality and not quantity.

Together since only 2004, Risky Business has wasted no time in earning recognition throughout the United States and overseas in addition to their hometown of Halifax, Nov Scotia.

Some Days may not be a proper full-length in that it contains previously released material. Nevertheless, it stands up as a proper LP, largely due to the strength of the songs and the carry-over of the band's tremendous live energy. Most of the songs on the album are mosh-heavy, aggressive, fist-in-the-air jams with a continuous posi vibe (in more of a self-powering sense than a Good Clean Fun sort of way). Occasionally a more light-hearted number such as "Cut Loose" will make an appearance, giving the listener the impression that the band doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite whatever impression you might get from the bulk of the lyrics.

While Some Days might come across as a little macho at times, such is hardly an exception to the genre. For the most part Some Days is a worthwhile contribution to the hardcore scene, and a great one for Atlantic Canada to be making.