Retaliate

I have finally found a new favourite hardcore record after a few months of thinking that the Power Alone record couldn't be topped. Interestingly, the two have a couple of things in common. They are both on Indecision Records, they both came out in 2020, and I have only just got around to listening to both of them in 2022. My new favourite is the fourth LP from Southern Californian band Retaliate titled simply 'IV'.

This record is everything that a hardcore record should be. There are 13 songs that are hard as hell and which are ripped through in 19 minutes.

It's kinda cool that the whoe album fits on one side of a 12". I guess they could have put 10 minutes on each side and left a lot of dead wax in the middle of the record (like the WIshingwell pressing of 'Break Down The Walls'), but instead it was pressed on just one side to save people who do actually play their records the inconvenience of having to turn it over halfway through. There were 500 copies pressed in total, all on blue vinyl, but 100 copies came with a screen printed b-side.

I have a weird history with this band. I bought their first album back when it came out in 2006 and didn't really rate it much. Then I was sent a copy of the band's third LP by the singer in 2012 when I bought a record from him. I actually liked that record back then. But I had never gone back and checked their second LP. So after picking up this fourth LP and liking it instantly, I decided to pick up a copy of the second LP to complete the set. The second record is titled 'We Are One' came out in 2009, with all copies being on clear vinyl.

Similar to the fourth record, this one is over in a flash. There are 10 songs on here and the whole thing is over in 16 minutes.

I found an old interview with the band where the singer (Zack Nelson - previously guitarist in the band In Control) mentioned that every time they write a new record he gives the other members of the band a copy of the first In Cold Blood LP and says that it what he wants to sound like. I'd say that they've done a pretty good job if that's the reference point. In fact I'd say that they did better by quite some margin.