Lack of sleep, Influenza A virus and a spike through your chest, among other things, cause people to get sick. When you get sick usually taking medicine is the cure. Lately I've been getting sick of "amazing-core". It's essentially hardcore pop: vague lyrics that every hardcore kid and hot topic consumers can connect to paved atop over-the-top polished "HXC jamz." The cure is Final Fight's Under Attack; twelve songs of near perfect consumption that still keep foot in dangerous territory.
Lyrically hardcore bands take three different routes: Terror, With Honor or American Nightmare. The singer either wants to beat "you" up, live a life of heart or cry about a broken heart. Not that these aren't valid topics, but when it's done time after time I begin to question the sincerity of formulaic writing styles. Final Fight is no Propaghandi or Howard Zinn, but still is able to write about subjects that aren't cliche in ways that are far from cliche. Take for instance the song "When Words Go Unchallenged," what I interpreted as being about bullying sexism. "A sad excuse of humanity, disallowing others the chance to shine. Still we play dead and act like its ok. And we all allow this to be excused a phase. You. Are. The. Problem." At the same time, Final Fight takes on the posi approach, "You are your biggest enemy, the biggest harm to yourself. Today's your day. Do something impossible. We are the ones that we've been waiting for." If the sincerity doesn't shine through the words, David's throttled vocals scream honesty. As a whole the lyrics seem to have as much self reflection as a plea for change.
Final Fight is able to create well written music that doesn't suffer from the nasty side effects that are so prevalent throughout "HXC." Super melodic fast paced hardcore where songs average 1:15 in length. While other bands write three minute songs that become repetitious after the first thirty seconds, Final Fight tosses songs like onion rings all over your grill. From start to finish, you won't hear verse-chorus-verse song structures. Each track progresses from one part to the next without repetition. Some parts only last a few seconds which combined with the powerful song writing adds a lot of replay to this record. I'd imagine each time you listen you could find a new favorite part, such as the clapping part in "Shifting the Center" or the "woah woahhh" part in "Three Years Ago." My only real complaint is the end of the song "One and Two," an instrumental with piano and drums. The part works well if it was maybe an intro, but where it is in the album feels out of place.
While bands that take this polished approach usually lose the punk spirit, Final Fight is able to contain it in a very good way. For fans of Comeback Kid or With Honor, you'll dig. For cynics of Comeback Kid or With Honor, you'll dig. For n00bz to jaded pricks, you'll dig. For people infected with Influenza A virus, I suggest drinking a lot of water, vitamin C and getting some sleep.
