Released in 2009, Count Me In confirms the solidity of Death Before Dishonor within the Boston hardcore scene. A relentless touring band, renowned for its onstage intensity, the outfit delivers a record faithful to its values here: direct, heavy and brotherly hardcore, without showboating or compromise. Here is a distillation of the most honest thing the East Coast scene had to offer in the late two thousands.
Hardcore in its truth
Nothing superfluous here. The riffs go to the essential, the breakdowns are built for the pit, and the tempos alternate between frontal charge and heavy mid-tempo. The production, clean and muscular, serves that efficiency without seeking to embellish. Death Before Dishonor reinvents nothing, but applies the recipe with a conviction and craft that command respect. This is artisan hardcore, robust and sincere.
Street values
The lyrics revolve around loyalty, friendship, perseverance and life on the road. These are classic themes of the genre, but carried with an authenticity that rings true. The raw voice hammers those convictions like watchwords, and the choruses call for collective participation. You sense a tight-knit band, singing what it lives and addressing its community first.
The limits of classicism
The flip side of this faithfulness to the genre is a certain lack of originality. The album takes few risks and stays within the lines of a tried-and-tested hardcore. Those seeking innovation or surprise will be left wanting, so signposted is the formula. But to reduce the record to that reproach would be unfair, for its honesty is also its strength.
Count Me In is aimed above all at lovers of no-frills hardcore, who will find here exactly what they are looking for: energy, sincerity and a keen sense of the collective. Death Before Dishonor never aimed for revolution, but for efficiency and integrity, and on that ground the contract is fully honored. A solid record, cut for the stage and for the faithful of the first hour.
