Bottom Line NYC No One's Safe

Once Toronto’s No Warning blew into the scene with an eye-opening demo 7” and followed it up with one of Bridge 9’s most profilic releases in "Ill Blood," the classic New York sound was brought to the masses in popular waves that had not been seen since Strife became the most convincing non-New York band to do it in the early 1990’s. And while Strife took cue from the second generation bands like Cro-Mags, Leeway, and Judge, No Warning were taking their ideas from the third generation ones like Madball and Maximum Penalty. With the advent of No Warning’s popularity, the New York scene finally shed whatever underground status it had left as young fans scrambled to see who influenced them. And they discovered those bands. And then they formed their own bands. Bottom Line is one of those bands. The irony is that Bottom Line is from Queens. Why didn’t they start earlier being that they are from the big apple, you ask See above phenomenon. Only time will tell whether Stab and Kill, now Perfect Victim Records, has a beast on their hands or merely another imitative and short-lived one-release band. In the meantime, Bottom Line will play shows and attempt to build a fanbase in the hardcore scene in quite the opposite way that No Warning did, having burned many of their bridges, moved on to bigger and better things, and stand poised to change their sound completely for major label concessions. Perhaps then Bottom Line has arrived for the purpose of carrying the torch that No Warning recently dropped, only with much more scene loyalty. Sound-wise, Bottom Line take no risks. They sound uncannily like No Warning but without overdoing the blatant hooks and quick change-ups. In that regard, Bottom Line is more mature and less tongue-in-cheek. And while most of their songs barely crack the two-minute mark, there are enough decent old school riffs to please the ardent Posi Fest-going kids who are lapping up the dozens of bands that Boston continues to churn out. The raspy and biting vocal patterns of Brian Foster resemble No Warning’s Ben Cook so much that I took a double-take at the liner notes just to verify who was actually singing. Whether Bottom Line want to stylistically resemble No Warning to such precise measures is an aspect of their music that they would be well-advised to address. The Dean Baltulonis and Matt Henderson production job does wonders for this new band, who would have been much more easily swept under the rug had the album not sounded as good as it does. No Warning is to Bottom Line as Madball is to No Warning: Their primary source of inspiration. Their authenticity is never in question thanks to their Queens roots, and while this EP shows some good anger and hate, they will need to be more creative for fear of being labeled the best No Warning tribute band this side of the Atlantic. Perfect Victim Records are rising quickly to be one of the premier tough guy and old school hardcore labels. With some good label support and consistent touring, Bottom Line could potentially have a huge fanbase in no time.