ALBUM REVIEW: Against Myself – Vantage Point

VANTAGE POINT are from Boston, Massachusetts and they’re signed to Triple B Records. If you’re a young hardcore band looking to stick a couple of references on your CV you won’t find many more resounding than that. Their debut full-length Against Myself follows a string of solid EPs and continues to proudly fly the flag for the kind of clear-headed, urgent and motivational hardcore championed by their Bostonian forebears in the likes of BANE and TEN YARD FIGHT, and indeed many others from before and beyond like TURNING POINT, INSIDE OUT and YOUTH OF TODAY.

Of course, that does mean that what VANTAGE POINT are doing here has been done plenty before; they’ve got a cool old school sound that harks back most of all to the groove and swagger of 90s hardcore, with proper barked vocals from frontman Russell Campot and a lively mix courtesy of Will Hirst of RESTRAINING ORDER. The bass is chunky, the drums are punchy, and the guitars are crisp and sharp – all boxes ticked for the kind of live, high-energy and no-nonsense sound that an album like Against Myself always works best with.

The whole thing only lasts 17-and-a-half minutes too, the record’s urgency established from the outset as the band tear through the 43-second opener Amends and into the swaggering following track The Ask. For the most part they operate at a full ten for intensity from there – the noodly bass intro to fifth track Not Much More providing perhaps the closest thing this record gets to a moment of respite, and a well-timed one at that as it comes right after the cacophonous highlight of Where It Ends II. Penultimate track Tired Of Looking Back stands out too, mainly thanks to its killer metallic riffing and easily embraced hook of “Is it just me? / Or the powers that be?”.

In general, the themes of Against Myself are very much old bedfellows of this particular strand of hardcore – those of facing up to one’s choices and struggles and even failings but always with an emphasis on self-acceptance and self-improvement. The title track lays this bare for example, as Campot bellows “I’m trying / I swear I’m trying / Self against myself” in another of the record’s most obvious mic-grab moments. Of course many will have heard words to this effect before, and no doubt placed against a similar backdrop, but the impact of them remains no less powerful when delivered with the passion that VANTAGE POINT muster here.

This is true of the record as a whole really. Against Myself makes no attempt to reinvent an approach to hardcore that has worked pretty much perfectly for over three decades now, and instead it focuses its attention on doing it to the same standard as that of VANTAGE POINT’s many obvious influences – with the added benefit of a more modern production. Maybe you’ve got enough of this on your shelves already, but if you can find room for one more then this record will certainly justify its place among the No Spiritual Surrenders and Always Darkest Before The Dawns of this world.

Rating: 8/10

Against Myself is set for release on November 10th via Triple B Records.

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