The Bleeding Starts Here

Do you remember 1988? Striking Distance certainly does. The Bleeding Starts Here may be a collection of old recordings and a couple cover songs, but they've all got the spirit of 1988 behind them. While the band is from Washington, D.C., all the songs have a decidedly New York-Boston feel in everything from the vocals to the thrashy nature of the guitars to the blunt sound of the snare. Occasionally there's a good breakdown, but much of this is circle pit material, with fast-paced slamdancing beats. Lyrically, the band is straightforward, sharing its stories of frustrated friendships and annoyance with the world's idiocy. Since kids will always be interested in the old-school hardcore style, Striking Distance is among one of the better acts in the genre to emerge at the dawn of the 21st century. Nonetheless, there's little to no creativity displayed within the 17 songs on the album (all of which are over in less than 23 minutes), thus some divergence would've been nice. Fans probably won't mind, and the covers of Minor Threat and Void are just the icing on the cake.