Against All Odds

Here's another new release from 2021 that I'm trying to squeeze in before the end of the year, this post is the debut full length from Southern California straight edge band Dare entitled 'Against All Odds'. This was released by Revelation, with the vinyl having been delayed a bit, and with it finally materialising just over a month ago. This is a rare example where I downloaded the songs before I had the vinyl because I was keen to check it out, so I've actually been playing this one for quite some time despite only recently getting hold of one of the circular plastic versions.

I hadn't really heard of Dare before they got signed to Rev, and had assumed that they were a new band, but checking online I was surprised to find out that they had previously had a 7" and a flexi 7" released by Reaper Records. Seems their first recorded output was in 2017, so they've already been going for at least 4 years. In a way it seems quite impressive that they've been going for 4 years and have just put out a full length, as 4 years seems to be longer than a lot of hardcore bands' entire lifecyle these days.

I'm a big fan of a song starting with a grunt, which this record delivers after 15 seconds which then opens a fariyl typical hardcore instrumental intro. Also, as I mentioned, Dare are a straight edge, and somehow in 2021 it feels kinda refreshing to hear a current band singing about more traditional straight edge subject matter. There's a song about being 'proud to be straight edge' and another where the chorus is 'fuck off, get lost, without you we're all better off'. Just what you need sometimes to fight off the feelings of being old.

This is the orange vinyl version which was made for Independent Records shops, and it proved a mild pain in the ass to get hold of. I was at RevHQ a couple of weeks back and they told me they didn't have any. A couple of days later we were out hiking and on the way home stopped in Programme Skate & Sound to pick up a copy, but they were sold out. It suddenly felt like this one was going to elude me. Then a day or two later I was in Hollywood, and ended up nipping into Amoeba Records, and I found a copy in there. I was happy. But then when I got home I realised that the copy I bought at Rev that was supposed to be purple was in fact orange. So after an initial panic about this, I have ended up with two copies. If anyone wants the spare, get in touch.