Death Before Dishonor

Friends Family Forever [reissue] (2006)

Jordan Rogowski

I would like to preface this review by saying I fell asleep roughly three times throughout the course of this 44-minute album, shockingly for this type of music entitled Friends Family Forever. This ‘new' offering from Death Before Dishonor compiles a reissue of the aforementioned EP and a sizable live set. However, loud guitars and throaty vocals will do nothing in the way of intensity or even just being interesting if the structures of the songs themselves are so lacking at the base.

That's the issue here, as despite all the noise created in these 16 songs, it's completely belittled by the lack of variety, or even change in vocal inflection that would make one thing there's some sort of reason to keep listening. There's not. Song in, song out, it's about the same length and about the very same topics. Now I understand that if the members of this band wanted to pontificate, and stretch the bounds of artistic license, they would have likely gone with a different type of music, but that doesn't change the fact that the ability to make this style of hardcore interesting is out there. Palehorse have that ability, and they achieve it through a fair amount of diversity and heaviness that comes from more than just guitars tuned to the lowest setting.

The close-to-two-minute duration of "Born from Misery" will tell you everything that you need to know about the band without having to listen any further. Angry but with no sense of direction, even two minutes finds the band plodding around and toiling with some of the exact same tricks they used 45 seconds earlier. The sporadic gang vocals and breakdowns do nothing to quell the feeling of repetition either, as their inclusion only highlights the perpetual state of doldrum to be found elsewhere.

I really don't like being so curt with reviews, but there's simply not much here to say. If you're a fan of the band already, and hadn't owned the material previously, I see no reason you won't both enjoy this. The inclusion of a CBGB live set might also entice some, but for the rest of us I'd be a liar if I said there's anything new to offer.

Not for your friends, or your family.