SevenYearsWar - "Ranks of the Common People"

Please let me begin this post by telling you that this band was amazing. SevenYearsWar was a four piece from Burlington, VT and they played energetic and furious straight edge hardcore that was heavy, but without necessarily being metallic, per se. Let me also inform you that their self titled 7" from 1995  is certainly one of my favorite seven inches, period. Also, if you asked me who the five best straight edge bands in the history of ever were, this band would find their way into that answer*.

This cd was a split release by NY's Struggle Records and the extremely important and prolific Moo Cow Records, and was released in 1996 with 1000 pressed. If you are reading this blog and you aren't familiar with Moo Cow, then you need to go ahead and make sure you do that. Legendary 90s d.i.y. hardcore punk label that covered a vast array of styles. Anyway, the band had originally planned to record this record with Brian McTernan at Salad Days Studios. Apparently there was some sort of mix up, and the band recorded at a different studio (Bristol Studios) and, instead, had McTernan remix it at a later date. This gives me the same sentiment I feel towards Turmoil's "From Bleeding Hands": all of the songs are quite excellent, but with the quality of recording the album should have received, who knows how awesome the final product could have turned out. As an aside, the cover art was done by Ten Yard Fight's Anthony Pappalardo.

"Ranks of the Common People" is full of intelligent, political and socially conscious lyrics to go along with rrrreeeeaaaallllyyy awesome, hectic, well played hardcore punk that was pretty technically proficient. You can tell vocalist Jonathan Hughes felt strongly about the subject matter of the lyrics he was yelling and screaming. Also, the drummer of this band is really good and that's important to me because, well, I play drums. Underrated and often overlooked, which means you probably need to have a go, mate. Recorded during April of 1996.

-have a go-

Tracklist
1) Eighteen
2) Hibakusha
3) Caged
4) Witness
5) Nativecrown
6) Nrubaidem
7) One Of Every Three
8) Terrestrial
9) Pogrom
10) Phonemes

*Threadbare, Undertow, Chokehold, SevenYearsWar and either Mouthpiece, Judge or Groundwork, depending on the day.