Facedown Records
Released June 19, 2012
Reviewed by Anthony Peronto
With reunions popping up everywhere lately, we get out first taste of a hardcore reunion this year with xLooking Forwardx’s comeback EP Down With The Ship. Coincidentally last year, labelmates Overcome released their comeback album The Great Campaign of Sabotage and oddly enough they both have striking similarities. They both play hardcore, stick to the conventions of the genre, and improved in their quality of production. However xLFx have an contrasting advantage: They have all the original members that were present on their last release, 2005’s The Path We Tread.
Ignoring the tedious intro & outro (also present on Overcome’s album), “The Fast And The Spurious” lives up to its name. It’s fast and it addresses not being a fake, simple as that. The highlight of the entire EP is the title track, where the band says they’ve stayed true to who they are and how they play music. And it’s the first hardcore song I’ve heard that namedrops Jason Dunn of Hawk Nelson, for example, “Maybe if we’d gone more melodic the record sales would be less sporadic/Maybe if we sounded more commercial the path we tread wouldn’t have led to Jason Dunn’s attic.” Reoccurring themes in the genre come up again with “Put Up Or Shut Up” asking for less talk and more actions and “Demanding Answers” addressing perseverance.
It’s been 7 years since we’ve heard new material from xLooking Forwardx and they’ve delivered the goods. Not creative at all but they stay true to their original sound and within hardcore’s conventions. This (very short) EP is recommended if you like your HXC in it’s basic, purest form.
Grade: 4
Tracklisting:
- Intro
- The Fast and the Spurious
- Down With The Ship
- Here I Am
- Getting Back With Your ‘X’
- Put Up Or Shut Up
- Demanding Answers
- Outro
