Back in the late 80's / early 90's, when the heavy metal I grew up with was kinda repeating itself, I turned my attention to several other kinds of music. One of them was hardcore. It was of course the time of S.O.D., AGNOSTIC FRONT, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, C.O.C. and other bands that broke down the barriers between metal and punk by combining the two. For adventurous headbangers like Yours truly there suddenly was a whole new world of music to discover. New releases from BAD BRAINS and BLAST! as well as the back catalogues of such diverse bands as CIRCLE JERKS, MINOR THREAT, M.D.C., BLACK FLAG, THE MISFITS, THE GERMS and 7 SECONDS proved to be a lot more interesting and refreshing than the hair-and-spandex-silliness a lot of metal had become when it kind of entered the mainstream.

Although a lot of the early crossovers with metal were kind of fun, I think hardcore took a turn for the worse when it became a kind of poor man's metal itself. To each his own of course, but a bunch of macho-posturing sports-jocks endlessly semi-hip-hopping a load of gibberish about "respect!!" and "unity!!" over some second-hand metal riffs is not my idea of fun. Not to mention those snot-nosed kids nowadays who probably don't even know who Ian McKaye, Greg Ginn or Dr. Know is but still have the gall to state that "the old school' was so much better. Bah, humbug!! It's probably very narrow-minded of me but for the reasons mentioned above I hardly keep up with what's being released in the so-called 'hardcore'-scene anymore.

Which brings us to this 7" / CD-R release by Detroit foursome THE BILL BONDSMEN. It's called "The Swinging Sounds Of The Bill Bondsmen" (which combined with the band name and album cover reveals a healthy sense of sick humor) and it's a great reminder of what hardcore used to sound like when this music was still fun. No lyrical Jerry Springer-isms (boohoo!), corny football choruses or riffs out of SLAYER's trash bin to be found here. Six songs and twelve minutes of pure aggression is what you get. The only things close to subtleties and little accents come from the tight rhythm section, all the guitars and vocals do is roar!! Listen to the third and best track "Take Me Off Your List" and catch my drift. So this is basically 'old school hardcore' you ask? No, if anything it's proof that there's no such things as silly scholar systems in hardcore. It's not called 'hardcore' for nothing you know!!?

Since this is all really raw, basic, in-your-face stuff, the 12 minutes and 45 seconds the whole thing lasts is kind of long enough, and it's kind of not. While I don't expect any musical surprises from these guys I would like to hear more from THE BILL BONDSMEN. Anyone familiar with this kind of music and where it came from knows how addictive this sound can be. Do you also miss that old no-nonsense hardcore sound? Or do you wanna hear how this stuff is supposed to be played? By all means check out "The Swinging Sounds Of The Bill Bondsmen". And if not, there's always your generic brand-name-clothing designer-metalcore at the local gym.

- Van Hoften

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/thebillbondsmen

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