Italy’s Watch Your Step isn’t writing the most brilliant stuff around, but they sure know the ins and outs of a good, fast, straightforward American hardcore song.

If you dig on bands like Internal Affairs, Lights Out and Blue Monday, you probably know what you’re getting on Taking You Down with Me II. The album is actually an Australian tour reissue of their 2007 full-length of the same name with a few extra bonus tracks.

Though these riffs and melodies have been heard before, they’re delivered with enough energy to get by and a really precise ability. Watch Your Step’s lyrical topics aren’t exactly a full stage dive ahead of anything that hasn’t already been previously discussed, but that chugging riff that follows the “talking shit behind my back” line in “Empty Moves” is just incredibly well-placed. I’m not even sure what the guy means when he yells “You’re burning bridges but I’m here to take it back” in the title track, but it’s pretty fun anyway.

Finishing off the album is a really punchy recording, helping Watch Your Step’s Taking You Down with Me II come off as a derivative but pretty effective 20 minutes of hardcore.

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Face It
Way to Shine
Bound to Lose
Not Your Friend