Against the Rest

One might argue that the only thing more difficult for a horny, angry, experience-starved teenager to endure than committing to a straight-edge lifestyle is forming a straight-edge hardcore band and attempting to do anything remotely unique with the form. After all, here's a style already limited by hardcore's innate ethos of sonic simplicity, but burdened even further with the added complication of anal-retentive, often downright preachy lyrics to boot. Enter Dayton, OH's Never Again, whose first distinction of note is having two typically opinionated vocalists (one for each ear?) standing out front of their anomalously expansive six-piece lineup (probably a violation of some obscure bandmember limitations statute imposed by the "Hardcore Bands Union" come to think of it). Their debut album, 2007's Against the Rest, also contains some interestingly ragged, metallic guitar work on the title track, "Point Taken," and "Dead Presidents," and then there's this one other song which actually fades out instead of crashing to a stop as per hardcore regulation number 136-b (sorry, couldn't resist) — and that's about as exotic as it gets! All kidding aside, the members of Never Again do acquit themselves convincingly enough with these customary if limited, tools of the trade, thanks to their boundless, youthful enthusiasm, so straight-edge fans who listen with reasonable expectations shouldn't come away disappointed.