Struck Nerve – Rattle The Cage (Recommendation)

Struck Nerve were recommended to me by a good friend and already after shortly listening I knew why he wanted to make me aware of their first album Rattle The Cage. The band from Philadelphia, which consists of members of Jesus Piece, Agitator and Payback, delivers a 9 track strong message to posers and hypekids and declares the scene with snotty straight edge hardcore punk not yet lost. As the artwork might suggest, this is Youth Crew right in the face, but not only the presentation has dedicated itself to the old school days of the genre and thus definitely deserves an extensive testing.

The almost 15 minutes that are delivered on Rattle The Cage are brimming with cool street hardcore and put a lot of emphasis on the punk part of hardcore. Hard breaks and overly blunt mosh parts are not found here, which is not wrong considering the music presented. Instead, you get groovy basslines and aggressive riffing, which is provided with a lot of catchy melodies and especially thanks to its distinctive scratchy vocals can remain in mind. With well-timed gangshouts and crisp songwriting, Struck Nerve nevertheless drive a lot of energy into the listener’s veins. The drums put their focus on the cymbals, which reaffirms the raw street factor, and through aggressive blasts the band keeps picking up the pace. Clear highlight within the songs are the bridges, which are arranged very diversified and still find their master in given genre elements like 2-step parts.
The sound permanently pushes forward and you can literally grasp the frustration of the band and immediately notice that it is not about irrelevant cobbled together hardcore, because the lyrics also play a big role. The production is quite dirty and fits perfectly to the oldschool attitude, without letting the catchy melodies get lost. There is definitely still a lot of room for improvement, but for a debut album the record is really strong and above all long-lasting.

Since December 4th you can get Rattle The Cage in different vinyl versions via the well-known label YOUNGBLOOD RECORDS which you should definitely do as a die-hard lover of Straight Edge Hardcore and Youth Crew Sound.
With Struck Nerve you finally find a band that doesn’t mince words and delivers sincerely critical lyrics to scene and society. Strong sound, distinctive vocals, lots of street attitude and absolutely no Tough Guy bullshit. The guys from Philadelphia do an excellent job with their first full length and bring to light hardcore that is exactly to my taste and authentically reminiscent of the early days of the movement. A really exciting release that definitly makes you miss the current failure of shows in small clubs much more than ever.

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