Madball - Best Of Madball Review

Tracklist
01. Set It Off
02. New York City
03. It's Time
04. Across Your Face
05. Down By Law
06. Smell The Bacon (What's With You?)
07. Friend Or Foe
08. Demonstrating My Style
09. Unity
10. Live Or Die
11. Pride (Times Are Changing)
12. Hardcore Still Lives!
13. Nuestra Familia
14. Ball Of Destruction
15. Look My Way
16. Moment Of Truth
17. Waste Of Time
18. Been There, Done That
19. Talkin' To Myself
20. Fools Die

Pim S.: The best of Madball. With this album Roadrunner offers an overview of all the material that Madball has ever released. And for those of you that don’t know this: that material reached heights that are hardly ever surpassed. During the end of the ‘90s the hardcore-scene was ruled by two bands: Sick Of It All and Madball. Nowadays, a band like Hatebreed is much bigger than Madball has ever been. But that’s purely based on the amount of records the bands sold. Musically, Madball has been much more influential.

The bulk of the material on this album comes from the legendary full lengths “Set it Off”, the bands’ debut, and “Demonstrating My Style”, their second album. This is an obvious decision because those are records in hardcore that can be compared with metal albums such as “Reign in Blood” or “Master Of Puppets”. This compilation also has six more recent songs on it. They’re good songs but they don’t have the status that the older Madball stuff has. At this time, the band is working on a comeback. They split up for a while and some members were replaced but they’re back now. A new album is in the works and we’ll be able to see whether they can still reach their old level when it comes out.

Anyway, the conclusion is simple: these songs are essential to any record collection. 99% of all hardcore-fans will already know this material and for them this album is meaningless. But for those who do not own these masterworks this album is a great opportunity. Madball provides us with a blueprint of how hardcore should be: hard, aggressive and brutal. I won’t go as far as reviewer Onno Cro-Mag who gave “Demonstrating My Style” 100 points in the magazine Aardschok. I would never give anything 100 points because, in theory, everything can be improved. However, I find it hard to believe that this could be any better.
Source : www.lordsofmetal.nl