Yep, Some Kind of Hate is from Boston. They're on Bridge 9, a local Boston label. The Boston city seal decorates the front cover of the album, and on the inlay, reads, "Boston is mine–It owes me a living." So just in case you were hazy, yes, they are from Boston. Blasting through five songs in seven minutes, Some Kind of Hate's self-titled release is just what you'd expect from a hardcore EP, and it is cleanly and energetically, recorded by Kurt Ballou, who has worked with Converge, American Nightmare (cough…excuse me….Give Up the Ghost), and The Hope Conspiracy. On another plus, the packaging is sleek and the actual CD has a translucent blue outer-rim, which scores definite points for coolness.

I'd call this a throwback band. Some Kind of Hate's style decidedly rests on the laurels of late 80s hardcore, taking the sound pioneered by bands like Agnostic Front and Madball, and infusing it with a little bit of that now popular hardcore-metal pairing. No youth crew here. This is plain, throwback hardcore. The guitars and drums are well done, never quite innovative but definitely solid, and Matt Pike's vocals remain a raspy, throaty yell.

The song "Face Down and Fucked," with the line, "So cliché, but it's so true," is my favorite of the five offerings, which seem to all be about relationship problems. It is possible to see this entire band as cliché. You're going to hear familiar breakdowns, familiar lyrics, familiar vocal patterns, familiar chant-along-choruses--familiar music. But I see it as a throwback, not really doing anything new, but at least paying homage to the pioneers of the genre with new, energetic offerings in the vein of the past. And Some Kind of Hate is doing that really well. No date has been set for the LP, but this quick little seven-minute teaser is solid.