Artist: Maximum Penalty
Album: Life and Times
Genre: Hardcore
Label: Reaper

The return of old school hardcore has reached us again. Maximum Penalty is back with their new album Life & Times. Being one of the only few remaining old school hardcore bands left on the face of the Earth, you got to give them props for keeping it up, but keep it in mind, there is a reason whey its called OLD SCHOOL. Ok, now granted the album isn’t all bad, just time to move on and continue on with their lives.

Let’s pick out the good aspects of Life & Times shall we? The music is genius, straight off the streets power and angry hardcore. It makes you want to get up and rip somebody apart in the pit. Quite possibly the best hardcore music I’ve heard in a long time. The young guns in the scene have defiantly learned from these old school guys. The music is probably the only good thing on the album. The vocals are a whole other story sadly.

I’m sorry but nu-metal vocals do not go with hardcore music. The whole singing factor absolutely kills this album. When you want to listen to angry, aggressive hardcore, you want vocals to go along with. Maximum Penalty does not follow this. In the long run, it just doesn’t fit! The vocalist would sound better in the mainstream rock where he belongs.

Yes I know I completely tore down the vocals on the album, and I realize that it’s the reason why it kills this album. If you’re into the whole old school hardcore then you probably already have Life & Times and will disagree with me about it. To wrap it up nicely, Maximum Penalty is old school hardcore for old school kids.

Score: 6/10

Written By: Matt Haines

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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