When it came to late 90s hardcore bands I was into these guys would be in my top ten. However, since their heyday, I lost track of the various comebacks. The years have been relatively kind to these guys. They have plenty of energy, as they race into their very punk-leaning vision of hardcore. The sung vocals are a little lower as expected with age. It works really well on "Illuminating" which is more than likely the album's strongest. Though they do use some pretty impressive melodies on "Still Believe".
The more breakdown-like riffs are not as angry, but the melodic moments are pretty much still there. The album does open with the more in-your-face "The Mirror" which is on the more punk side and less metallic than what I remember from them, but still a reasonable facsimile. The songs get to the point, but have their trademark ebb and flow as they were always one of the more dynamic hard-core bands, who have always excelled at creative arrangements. One thing I appreciate about this reunion is it's pretty much all the original 90s members, so the chemistry is still there. The more racing punk moments do not pop off to my ears like when I was younger, and sound rushed at times.
"Take a Stand" is just over a minute, and is more of an old-school punk than I ever remember the band doing in the first place. The title track that closes the album is a fair representation of who the band was and how capable they are of still being that band. It makes me want to go back and dig into their older albums again. This is all I can really ask of them so I will give this album a 9 and see how it grows on me.
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