Genre: Hardcore / Metalcore HARDSIDE has just returned home from Europe to America with a deal in their pockets with heavyweight label Beatdown Hardwear. This will give the band some much deserved promotion in Europe as well as proving that not all releases are beatdown on the label whose name contains the word “beatdown” and they are changing the conception that some may have about American hardcore being a specific brand of ordinary hardcore. HARDSIDE is in no way ordinary and they dare to bring something new to the table when they capitalize on the 90s sound. HARDSIDE puts together two guitars, of which one provides a clear melody all the way through while the other plays around with solos, the supportive, precise and stable drumming that is the constant backbone of the band, the underplayed, gravelly vocals and a bass that is significant to the band. A strong union of guitars, bass and drums, where the instruments are being used to their full potential, the vocals are for the most part hoarse, the words are understandable and discernible, but still leave the instruments to take front stage. Almost as a trademark you hear the loose and groovy bass on every song and it ties the melody and lyrics together to support the overall sense of “The Madness” that HARDSIDE portrays so well throughout this album. The title “The Madness” fits the album so well as the constant shifts in styles, influences and sound keep you confused to the brink of madness when you try to get an overall idea about what exactly this album is setting out to do. Through it all it is the particular daring structure that gives way to the musical skills of the band and the passion to follow through on the 90s metal inspiration that so obviously is at the base of the band’s sound. HARDSIDE is one of the bands in the present hardcore scene that refuses to be labelled and they really show the diversity in the scene and the purpose of and need to mix things up. Their way of mixing the 90s metal sound, be it in melody, tempo, riffs or even vocals, like in the songs “Forever” or “Resurgence”, just to name a few, shows an understanding of their roots and the current state of the hardcore scene in particular. It is daring to do all the things that HARDSIDE does, all at once, but whenever you feel that you can pinpoint the direction they are going in within a song, they switch it around and end up with a playful sort of hardcore that integrates various elements that some might argue is not hardcore, like the metal-like guitar solos and the sharp, almost clean, light, vocals reminiscent of 90s crossover as a great contrast to the raw, very hardcore, vocals that dominate the album (and the hardcore scene). “Resurgence” even adds a melodic bit of clean chorus toward the end after a lengthy guitar solo on top of the characteristic bass-driven melody before returning to the hardcore sound and finishing the song with 25 seconds of vocal brutality.