Strike to Survive, “Yesterday’s News” LP

cover - strike to survive yesterday's newsIt’s a damned good thing that Strike to Survive exists, because the Bronx sure as shit isn’t putting out albums like this anymore. Bands change, blah blah blah — whatever, all I know is that what I liked about the Bronx isn’t there in their music any longer, so a band that puts out severely heavy rock ‘n’ roll is greatly needed these days.

At first, it’s pretty great, because Yesterday’s News is essentially a Bronx record with different vocals. Maybe a little less low end. Other than that, it’s got that declamatory shout in the vocals, the pauses where everything drops out but a sick little guitar riff, and a bunch of filler songs that exist to make one song shine like a brilliant fucking diamond.

In this case, you’ve got “Scapeghost,” whose absolutely mesmerizing opening riff demands to be played over and over and over again. It’s insane. Unfortunately, the majority of Yesterday’s News is so similar to itself that, while Strike to Survive does this hard rock rock ‘n’ roll thing quite well, they don’t really do anything much more than sounding like the Bronx when the Bronx was good. It’s fun and all, but Strike to Survive never really manage to stand on their own feet.

That being said, the record looks and sounds great. It’s a gatefold sleeve, 180 gram black vinyl … we’re talking super high-end packaging on a pretty basic album. Of course, when you look closely at all of the artwork, you can see the pixelated edges on everything, which really takes the design down a couple of pegs. 300 dpi for print, kids. Remember it next time, Don’t Look Down Records.