Chain of Strength
The One Thing That Still Holds True

New chapter of the Hardcore Punk genre and derivatives signed by Galensorg.

I present to you one of my favorite albums belonging to this genre: "The One Thing That Still Holds True" by Chain Of Strength.
Chain Of Strength had a very short life (1988-1991), yet they managed to make their name among the most famous and representative of the Youth Crew musical subculture.
In short, Youth Crew represents the optimistic side of Hardcore Punk, whose bands often made principles like Straight Edge and sometimes vegetarianism their mainstays; additionally, they were also distinguished by much more conventional, casual, and sporty clothing.
The independent record label Revelation Records (which released this record) was a key figure in the dissemination and promotion of these bands.
The year 1988 is often indicated as the most significant for the New York scene (on some t-shirts and records you can find the '88 logo), as well as being a year of violence that caused the closure of several venues and the ban on Hardcore concerts.

I want to talk about it enthusiastically because this music scene particularly represents me, for obvious reasons.

After these hints of history and little curiosities, I finally want to talk about the album: it was released in 1995, four years after the breakup, and constitutes the entire production of COS.
11 tracks for 23 minutes of music, coming from the two EPs made + one unreleased track. Alas, they are really few, but wow, they are good! (as the saying goes)

It is precisely the unreleased track "Impact" with its bass line that clears the path for the remaining 10. The first bullet fired in what ends up being a shootout.
To mention the absolute charge of tracks like "Too Deep Until Now", "Hurts To Ask", and "True Till Death", undoubtedly among the best performances.
It wouldn't be very useful to do a track by track for such an album: in every piece, there's the anger and the desire for change of a voice with the aggressiveness of a team of hooligans (the unanimous choruses remind us of them), relatively melodic driving riffs with the classic simple&effective structure, and absurd and truly creative drum parts, which are the greatest strength of COS's proposition. It was these that astounded me on the first listen; a bombshell as a drummer.

But there's not only music to talk about... there are also the lyrics. They may not be the longest, the most imaginative, or full of hidden meanings but they blurt out simple truths. Shouting about brotherhood, unity, respect, living life with positivity, precisely, breaking the bridges that often divide us as simple human beings.

This is my people.