Path Of Resistance Can't Stop The Truth

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Reviewed by: Michael Gluck   //   Published: 9/13/2006

The mass exodus of hardcore kids from one generation to the next creates a vacuum. This vacuum is filled with kids whose principles differ from those held by the generation before it, save for a minority who still hold strong. Syracuse's proudest ambassadors of nineties-born straight edge, Path Of Resistance, are part of that minority. Their sophomore album Can't Stop The Truth, released almost exactly ten years after their standout debut Who Dares Wins, is a battered statement of survival and pride for a way of life that has since lost the majority of its adherents to a combination of factors. Like its predecessor, Can't Stop The Truth is a catchy hybrid of the late eighties/early nineties sounds from both sides of the country. The west coast melodies of "Best Of My Best" and "The Mission," and east coast crunch of "Against The Gale," "Blood Trail," and "At Full Strength" succeed at bringing back the memories of a more honest hardcore era. At the same time, others will surely write the album off as musically dated and uninteresting. Those who do so need to wake up, do their research, and find the value in Can't Stop The Truth, because it exists here in spades.

Ideologically, the album confronts the listener as a human who lives on this planet instead of merely pandering to an aggressive and crew-backed bitter soul. And for that reason alone this album has embarrassingly gone under the radar of most hardcore kids, young and old, many of whom once questioned their own place in this world and turned to awareness-raising bands like Path Of Resistance, Indecision, Ensign, One King Down, Earth Crisis, Strife, and Snapcase for inspiration. Today the majority of these bands are either forgotten or ridiculed as awkward and outdated by a new generation of hardcore kids who ironically skip the nineties and are now valiantly attempting to recreate the eighties. Today's hardcore music is unquestionably easier to live with than the self-improvement oriented hardcore of the nineties. Save for a small pocket including Most Precious Blood and First Blood, no longer is there a constant stream of popular bands compelling hardcore fans to examine their diets, their ethics, and their stances on social and political issues. These issues are still in constant discussion among prominent DIY bands like Tragedy, Cursed, and Born Dead Icons, increasingly popular death grind bands Phobia and Misery Index, and of course among countless bands in the punk scene as usual. But in hardcore the thrust toward truth and self-improvement seems to have gone out of style. Not with Path Of Resistance.

While the lineup on Can't Stop The Truth differs from the one on Who Dares Wins (ex-Another Victim and current Unholy guitarist Jonathan Dennison has stepped in on bass, ex-Earth Crisis drummer Dennis Merrick takes a seat behind the kit, and Bulldog steps in as the third vocalist), the message and songs are more relevant than ever. Even as the members are well into their thirties, with some living across the country (like ex-Earth Crisis founder/guitarist Scott Crouse, who recently joined a new lineup of God Is I for a demo featuring Merauder's Jorge Rosado on vocals) and most having started families, they still found a way to satisfy the nagging demand for a new record and construct yet another controversial argument for abstaining from the consumption of substances and animal products. Sadly, it is an argument that falls on more deaf ears than ever. While bands like Suffocate Faster and Embrace Today wave the straight edge banner high in 2006, their audiences are limited and music not nearly as proficient as that of their nineties' counterparts. Even then, Path Of Resistance tackle such a comprehensive array of topics that they are much more than a straight edge band, they should be considered a sustainable lifestyle band. But that would have zero appeal if marketed as such.

The reality of their immense popularity in Europe contrasted with a general lack of acknowledgment in North America is a sign of our fast rotting culture, justifiably addressed in Haunted ("dissatisfaction, it haunts you, you fail to question why - drugs of solace consumed to fill the void.running from the symptoms, suppress the pain") and "Into Emptiness" ("fools chase after unattainable dreams - casting illusions of beauty and success - view the world through a sick lens of selfishness - all that glitters is all that matters - worth and status through what's acquired"). Other issues addressed are factory farms and animals' unnecessary suffering ("What Propaganda Hides," "Blood Trail") and a personal commitment to ideals ("Against The Gale," "Best Of My Best"). Because Path Of Resistance has been a part-time band since conception, the odds are pretty low that they will be delivering the aforementioned messages directly to your local club any time soon. But evidently the band is not the only political outlet for founder/singer D.J. Rose, who recently did a web/podcast interview with renowned show Issue Oriented. And while ex-Earth Crisis leader Karl Buechner's voice sounds a bit dry and low in the final mix, his lyrics show a man still possessed. Hopefully his performance on the upcoming album from rejuvenated metalcore project Freya will be more prominent, and be a sign of more political action through music to come.

Bottom Line: There is more hardcore music being released these days than ever before. But judging by how the genre has become somewhat of a laughingstock for hard music fans, the music and ideals have lost their appeal among more serious crowds, having become watered-down and oversimplified. While Path Of Resistance never embraced technicality in their music, preferring instead to compose songs in a traditional hardcore vein, the ideals and values they propose are much more challenging than anything else being said today in heavy music. For the courage, inspiration, and honesty put forth by the band long after the majority of its original fans turned their backs, Can't Stop The Truth deserves to be heard.

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