Originally published in Verbicide issue #6

There is really nothing stupendous or adventurous about this album at all. It’s an album cut from the same hardcore cookie-cutter as the rest. Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s just my bias toward hardcore music; maybe I’m just not intently listening (or if I even care to intently listen), but all the songs sound the same. What we have here is your typical hardcore formula: distorted guitar, palm-muted power chords complemented with the occasional chord trill, buffered by quiet moments between the kick-in-the-face vocals spitting out ineloquent lyrics about “me versus the world” and “keepin’ it real” and the distortion rush.

This album is relatively boring and unexciting and doesn’t offer anything new, but it’s a safe bet for anyone who likes straight-up rhythm and structure in this “soft” hardcore band. But like many hardcore bands, I’d probably really like Manifesto Jukebox live. To me, hardcore will belong always to a live arena, never in a record.

(BYO Records, PO Box 67609, Los Angeles, CA 90067)