I know very little of Vancouver, British Columbia other than the fact that the bulk of X-Files was filmed there and that it has the nickname of "Rain City." I may not be well versed in Canadian culture (everything I know was learned from repeated screenings of Strange Brew), but I do know that Vancouver is home to some stellar punk and hardcore bands. Two of the most promising are showcased here: Go it Alone and Blue Monday.
Go it Alone kick things off with the intensity that made their full-length, The Only Blood Between Us, so great. The songs "Ovaltine" and "West Boulevard" are perfect songs to get the blood pumping. They're fast-paced hardcore drawing influence from youth-crew, but with an extra edge. Go it Alone is sure to make use of the occasional mid-90's breakdown and incorporate a good amount of melodic riffing throughout these songs. Vocally, Mark Palm has a gruff yelled delivery and when he yells, the words come out with great force. If you're into melodic hardcore such as Stay Gold and Lifetime, you'd enjoy this band quite a bit.
On the backend of this split we have Blue Monday, who last year released a LP on Bridge Nine Records. That album was slightly schizophrenic in that it contained both melodic hardcore moments as well as heavier in-your-face ones. Things aren't any different here. While "Maplewood" leans towards the melodic direction, "Cathedral Square" is a bit more frenzied and aggressive. It seems like Blue Monday is stuck between two loves and can't decide which direction to go. For the purpose of this split, I would have liked the band to go in the heavier direction for variety's sake.
In addition to original material, each band has contributed a Reserve 34 cover. They were a Vancouver band that was around in the 90's and had a couple of 7" releases and a full length. Unfortunately, I have never heard a note of Reserve 34, so it's hard to compare the originals to these covers. I will say that each band does make their choice of cover fit in with their respective sound, so it is my guess that the tree doesn't grow far from where the apple fell.
As a whole this is a short and sweet split release from two bands that are on the brink of breaking out. I do enjoy the Go it Alone side more and feel that their next release is going to be a huge one for them. Blue Monday, on the other hand, performed well but I think their heavier songs are better and would like to hear more of that. As for Reserve 34, if I come across any of their releases I'd probably pick them up, but you won't find me hunting down their test presses on eBay any time soon.
