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Album Review
by SashaS
2-8-2005
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| Madball: 'Legacy' by name and nature |
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Madball: 'Legacy'
(Roadrunner)
Madball: heavy, in your face and with real facets!
If an album has been named more appropriately this year - we don’t know of it! ‘Legacy’ is what Madball have supplied with the hardcore scene over the years and it can easily be measured in quantity of influence, longevity and reputation. Or, put succinctly in the words of the press release:
“Madball - a pummeling staple of New York Hardcore since the band's inception in 1988 – is one of the few groups that can lay claim to achieving high marks in regards to all of the above, while also maintaining an undying spirit that, to many, represents the heart of what hardcore is all about.”
From the opening ‘Adapt And Overcome’ the band embarks on a journey that few commandos are trained for - it is relentless, flattening, devastating, ‘killing machine’! It goes through the atomic ‘Timebomb’, it immerses itself into the ‘Darkest Days’, there is a tragedy of ‘War And Hate’… With commitment - as the track 13 states proudly - ‘100%’.
The band consists of Freddy Cricien - younger brother of Roger Miret, the charismatic front man of Agnostic Front - and it actually started as a side-project by being big bro’s group with Freddy on vocals, at the tender age of twelve! The band re-grouped with new members including mainstay Hoya on bass and released 2 classic albums - ‘Set It Off’ and ‘Demonstrating My Style’ - on their current label before moving to Epitaph Records and now, Ferret Records [in the US].
“It started as a hobby and it's turned into something really amazing that we never thought would happen,” Cricien, 29-years-old now, says. “We originally started by doing a bunch of throwaway Agnostic Front songs, but since then we've carved our own sound and our own niche. I'm proud of what we have accomplished.”
Cricien and Hoya are joined by the drummer Rigg Ross and guitarist Mitts to sustain the spirit of the band while weathering the group through each and every challenge, including a two-year hiatus from 2001 to 2003. From the crew's 1989 debut EP ‘Ball of Destruction’ to the present day - Madball have delivered with interest. And, bettering it all the time.
“We stick and move,” Cricien confirms. “People should expect certain things from us, but we always try and keep it fresh. Musically, it's the same formula, but just a new and improved version lyrically, we're touching on some new subjects but we're still giving people the real-life themes that they would expect to hear and production wise it's our heaviest album ever!”
Entirely equipped with heavy chugging, grooving New York Hardcore sound and evermore maintaining the same street-life inspired attitude that originally ignited the band's constantly burning passion.
Madball’s 16 exhaustive sonic sprints are contained within less that 34 minutes.
8/10
SashaS
2-8-2005
Madball’s album ‘Legacy’ is released 01 August 2005 by Roadrunner
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