Olde York – Shallow World

As hinted in their name, New York City’s Olde York is here to bring NYC hardcore back to its roots.  The hard nosed four piece harkens back to the type of hardcore that originated in the 80’s and 90’s withH20, Yuppicide, Agnostic Front and so on.  Not surprisingly, their latest full length, Shallow World, plays as an ode to the old school.  If you’re looking for dark eyeliner, trendy fashion sense, and exuberant song titles, you best head back to combing through the Rise Records catalogue.

From start to finish, the band lands blow upon blow of fist fighting sonic bruises.  Breakdowns find vocal strength in numbers with fist pumpers like “Entropy” laying down authority in each bluntly belted word.  Broken up by melodic grooves in songs like “On and On,” the disc grows increasingly listenable as the thumping bass and ripping guitar work their way from the background to the fore.  Ted’s baritone shrieks are as distraught as they are confrontational, adding the teeth to the musical in the more mellow moments.

The songs work to further the running theme of societal deception and mistrust common in hardcore.  “Once” contrasts the past and present emotions of personal betrayal and a shattered trust and belief in a former friendship.  And of course there are plenty of cases of over the top doom and gloom.  In “Fall Of Man” Ted mourns “…Sinking into this tar pit we call life, flesh rots away and bone lies exposed,” which stands as perhaps one of the more extreme examples on the album.  It only makes sense that Olde York does not attempt to express much beyond the sentiment of their idols before them.  As such, much of the album largely falls into the paint-by-numbers category of hardcore.

Overall though, Olde York puts on a gutsy performance.  The New Yorkers stick to their guns without as much as a waiver.  Being capable in its straightforwardness and respectable in aspirations, Shallow World offers appealing face-value entertainment.  It’s a narrow snapshot of NYC hardcore, but one that gets the job done.