Once upon a time, the fusion of hardcore, hip-hop with a dab of metal used to have a prominent spot in the harder guitar scene. Bands like Downset, Dubwar, Dog Eat Dog or -Lex clears his throat- Rage Against The Machine all achieved their portion of fame in their days. The time we are talking about is mid nineties, and that time disappeared as quickly as it got out of control. After that rap and hip-hop only found their way into heavier rock music through the nu-metal hype, but the sublime crossover that we heard on the radio and pogo'ed to on the festivals back then vanished. Once in a while however, bands emerge out of nothing that remember you of that fabulous mixture of groovy music. Enter Razorwire.

Blending Downset and Stuck Mojo with hardcore of the likes of Sick Of It All and Suicidal Tendencies, and do so now for their second release, after the 2003 League Of The Godless album. That effort took them all over Europe during an extensive tour, before entering the studio again this year to record the cd I'm listening as we speak.

It's nice to hear that a band that has been doing this since 1997 (in the midst of the crossover hype in festival-land) is still around with a seemingly unaltered style. Just listen to heavy-groove tracks such as Dipole and a generous smile will appear on your face due to the fine mix of hardcore and metal, and on Hookend and A Bullet Called Down the hip-hop influences re-emerge to remind you of Downset in quadruple. Quite entertaining.

However, one can ask how long this album will be picked off you shelf for a re-run. For me personally, as pleased as I was to hear such nostalgic sounds, the need to hear it again did not pressure me to give it another voluntarily go. Fact of the matter is, this cd is fun, it brings back good memories, the band's allright but it never becomes special, and the word fresh is miles away here.

But I do not expect Razorwire to having aimed at such a goal, I get the idea that they just want to play music they want to hear. Good for them. But A Bullet Called Pride never impressed me enough to check them out in a club. I forsee a revival of this style of music one day, but I do not see Razorwire triggering that one, I'm sorry to say. All in all it still is a nice cd, just nothing more than that.

Judge for yourself if you like a trip down memory-lane, it's out there in the stores on 5th of September of this year.