Born Blind - One For All (2000)
This is just not one of my favorite albums on Solid State, but it's still a decent record nonetheless. You'll probably remember these guys from their release on Facedown, and of all the killer bands they have on that label, I'm kind of surprised Solid State picked Born Blind. My hunch is that they wanted to snatch what could possibly be the next No Innocent Victim, but I have nothing to substantiate that theory (other than the fact that two of these guys played for N.I.V. at different times). With that in mind, the kind of hardcore you'll find here is in the same vein as the first N.I.V. album. It favors the east coast style that stays true to the old-school hardcore punk sound with lots of fast tempos and gang vocal anthems. In fact, some of the power chord guitar riffs sound like they could have just as easily been a simple punk rock song. You can hear a tiny bit of metal fighting to come out every once in a while, but certainly not enough for my taste. Overall, the music becomes kind of stale when listening to song after song, but the last third of the album (beginning with track 9) is where they seem to have buried their best stuff. I honestly do not care for the vocals at all, and they are one of the biggest drawbacks for the album as a whole. The lyrics are of the typical "in your face" variety that pull no punches and deal with common hardcore themes of hypocrisy, racism, injustice, and clinging to God. The cool old-school cover and art work is probably enough to let you know what to expect, and I guess you might be able to judge a book by its cover in this case. I do mean that in a good way. Overall, there's nothing really exciting or ground breaking here that necessitates your running out to buy this at any cost. If you are the hardcore type (little pun there) that needs to have every release you can get your hands on, then you probably won't be disappointed at all. On the other hand, the casual listener might be better off to wait until this one hits the sale bins. -- Review by Jason