Skate punks FRONTSIDE FIVE impressed me when I reviewed DC Jam's Skate Rock Vol 1 compilation a few months ago, their two-song contribution aiming for the throat with an early eighties punk approach. Often though it's difficult to gauge that much about a band's sound when they just have a couple songs on a "various artists"-type release. "Complacent Youth" FRONTSIDE FIVE's prototype is driven by blistering bass and rapidly pummeled drums complemented with a metallic guitar sound. Dual male vocals are employed in a single song assist the band to a fuller sound in "Cow Fucker"; one guy is a raw yeller and the other handles the more melodic pieces.

"Do The Crime" could be easily mistaken for a CIV or GORILLA BISCUITS track with it's gruff-yet-melodic vocals over a stripped down diet version of New York Hardcore. With its movie sample and near spoken piece over "Nuclear Solution" brings the "metal" period of the CIRCLE JERKS to mind, although the song mutates into a punk thrash. The instrumentals "Hangin With Hightower" and "On Bernal Hill" travel back to a time when crossover first really started to blur the lines between punk and metal. With their feet firmly in punk, the band manages to covers a lot of ground genre wise, even passing for D-beat (if not for a high falsetto scream) in "Destroy". Not all the songs on "Resurrection Cemetery" demand attention, and often they simply conjure thoughts of better bands they sound like, giving the impression that they are still searching for their own identity. But overall, FRONTSIDE FIVE is a band well worth watching.

- Carr

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/frontsidefive

RELATED ITEMS: VARIOUS ARTISTS - "Skate Rock Vol 1", 2009