Defiance
Nothing Lasts Forever

At least for me, much of the '90s and the beginning of the new millennium were a true despair in terms of hardcore punk. I mean: grunge, melodic hardcore, the explosion of pop punk, new metal incorporating hc elements, metalcore etc etc...in all this chaos, many historic bands have been lost for quite a while, many still move well, many limp here and there, but what never stops is the underground ferment that precisely in those years was able to produce a quantity of bands of enormous stature (one above all, Converge).

And right from the underground of the period emerged Defiance, formed in Portland in 1993, ultrapunk in image and sound. This "Nothing Lasts Forever" is from 1998 and represents a statement of intent in pure UK'82 spirit with anarchist lyrics and a solid sound, in full discharge/varukers/chaos UK style and a touch of oi!core, making it musically quite appreciable. Yet these Defiance do not convince me, just as I have never been convinced by the Casualties, who share the same label. In short, more than a true hardcore band, they seem to me a revival of one of the groups I mentioned above, not only because they are identical in music, concepts, and clothing (re-emerging half-meter mohawks, creepers, mesh tank tops, jackets studded with spikes, and one of the five, perhaps the guitarist, has short leopard-spotted hair) but because they are the exact reproduction of a model. They don't take inspiration from someone, they replicate them exactly, complete with era-specific gadgets. And this, as much as it sounds hard and brazen and screams about how the powerful are damned swine surrounded by lackeys willing to do the worst things for money, to me sounds like a nostalgic poverty of ideas that leads me at least to suspicion, with all due respect to the label that promotes them as "legendary punk from Portland" and "one of the most influential street punk bands in America". However, the songs on the CD are 10 and all appreciable, fast, energetic, screamed, and in addition, the 9th is a cover of "Emergency", a piece born from the collaboration between Motorhead and Girlschool, therefore also appealing.  I give it 3 for the music and 2.5 for the rest (the band).