Still Crossed Love And Betrayal

In the last five years, hardcore has entered into what some might call a stagnation of sorts. A sort of "if it ain't broke" mentality has resulted in a slew of bands whose sounds, image and message are all relatively similar. While this certainly doesn't seem desirable, Ohio's Still Crossed illustrate that it's not the worst thing in the world. On their debut album, "Love and Betrayal," they cover ground previously explored by some of the foremost groups of the last decade while trying to infuse some of the intensity and speed of the 80's. While this has become a relatively pedestrian feat as of late, there's something to this disc that makes me enjoy it more than most. Like many of their hardcore brethren, Still Crossed are a straight edge band that sings about straight edge, has straight edge artwork and even goes so far as to dedicate their album to "the Straight Edge." I'm personally not straight edge, but I'm also not into Satan or drugs so as far as I'm concerned bands can be into whatever they want. Just keep in mind that these twelve tracks are largely obsessed with being edge, breaking edge and other people who are or aren't straight edge. Even the band's name suggests their devotion, as they are "still crossed" after many years, a statement I was amused by considering most of them don't look older than twenty-two. Still Crossed has extremely competent drumming and guitar playing and it is immediately noticeable on "Love and Betrayal." The only thing I didn't necessarily care for musically was the vocals, which tended to sound like the singer had a mouthful of food while recording. His tone and emotion were great, but there was so little clarity to his lyrical delivery that I found myself in disbelief of the lyric sheet at times. The production on this record is of the highest quality. If producer Mike Hasty keeps working like this, he could easily become highly sought after. Bottom Line: While I give props first and foremost to the bands that thought of this style of hardcore in the first place, Still Crossed also deserves credit for making it their own. "Love and Betrayal" is a good disc for the hardcore fan that has it all. Like so many other records, this is nothing groundbreaking but not altogether mediocre. As long as you understand the background they're coming from, it's hard not to appreciate how well this band does what they do.