Expired Youth
Where We Stand
Think Fast! Records

After my round of Think Fast! Records reviews I’m beginning to think this is a straight up straight edge label. Well, what we have here is some windy city straight edge hardcore. These guys were/are in great chi-town bands like Sidewalk, Haunted Life and most notably Plan of Attack (RIP), if you haven’t heard of those guys do yourself a favor and check out their material, all of which is quality. Where We Stand is the bands debut effort, featuring five new tracks and the bands 2004 demo, totaling nine tracks in all. These guys do a good job of incorporating various sounds of hardcore into their sound, from punk rock, hardcore to youth crew hardcore. They sound like a cross between Ignite, Desperate Measures (Youngblood) and Youth of Today with nods to former hometown heroes, Life Sentence. In my review for Wake Up Call, I mentioned how they are straight edge but don’t alienate any of the non straight edge kids and welcome anyone willing to listen into the fold, well Expired Youth exhibit the same thing, which gets a thumbs up from me. Their five new tracks compared to their demo really show the band coming into their own and tightening up their sound. Their approach to song writing improved exponentially with their newer stuff, there’s more subtle change ups that keep things from getting trite. The demo tracks are little more straight ahead and rely heavily on pure speed, the new songs change tempos more. Sure it’s only between fast and mid paced but they change it up more coupled with the cues and bridges that also spice up the songs. The vocalist also grew into his style more, he sounds a lot more natural whereas on the demo it came off a little more contrived and forced. While the lyrics have a strong straight edge undertone, mostly they deal with the everyday struggles of life and emotion battles with yourself and friends. I’m on board with the production, it’s got a nice gritty tone to it with the vocals right in the thick of things. I’m down with the artwork and layout. It’s a mostly blue based layout with a illustrated train track scene of the guys in the band standing around with X’s painted on their hands. The booklet features pictures of the band members with the expired youth logo silhouetted in the background of the thank you’s. Good shit.

Rating: 3.8/5

Songs Worthy Of Replay: Walking Tall and Looking Glass

Thesis: Windy City straight edge with loads of gang chants and plenty of speedy bursts. If you like it hard and straight, you’ll be feeling this one.