Ironbound NYC
With A Brick
Thorp Records

This is another one of those hardcore super groups featuring members of Sick Of It All, Killing Time, Maximum Penalty, Chronic Fear and Straight Ahead. As well as the first project that features prominent members of hardcore legends Sick Of It All. With this release they stick to what they do best, late 80's early 90's NYHC. The intro brings to mind SOIA, scratch the surface. Which can be attributed to Pete Koller who plays guitar on tracks 1-5 as well as Craig Ahead. On tracks 6-10 Sean O’Brien takes over the bass duties with Sean McLoughlin handling all of the guitar work. Tracks 1-5 features more of a metal approach ala SOIA whereas 6-10 is more of a straight forward hardcore approach, why they did this on the recording I don’t know, for playing live it makes sense but on the recording not so much. It kind of throws off the flow of the cd, it’s not drastic but it’s noticeable. Thomaso Skorupski (Chronic Fear) handles the vocal work and his approach is flawless, tough and hard as nails vocals that are perfectly decipherable. The lyrical content is what you would expect from these guys, stories about trials and tribulations, unity, staying true, etc,. The first half of the CD was recorded seperately from the second. The production on the guitars is right on the money, the vocals were dialed in nicely, not too high not too low, except in the second half there’s a slight echo in the background. The bass in tracks 1-5 is more pronounced than 6-10, but again just a slight nuisance. Overall the production sounds good just little things here and there that could’ve sounded better. The layout looks good, slick blue and silver metallic images dominate the cover and tray art, the booklet has black and gray images with easy to read lyrics, not that you should ever need them though. This release will be good for kids who might have not heard of Killing Time and Maximum Penalty, etc,. To find good new tunes and some classics as well. These guys don’t have to reinvent the wheel because they’re riding through on the same one they did 20 years ago.

Rating: 4/5

Songs worthy or replay: With A Brick, Another Day, Truth

Thesis: Authentic NYHC from front to back, sure to please any diehard hardcore fan.