:: Loyal To The Grave - Most Wanted 168th Infantry

Loyal To The Grave

There’s been a lot of talk about the explosion of the hardcore scene into the U.S. and European mainstream over the last couple of years, but a little known fact is that in the Far East, there’s also a growing movement that’s slowly making inroads into their own popular culture. Loyal To The Grave has been at the forefront of the Japanese hardcore scene since their inception in 1998, and after a string of successful one-off territorial releases, Loyal To The Grave has set its sights on the overseas Australian market with this latest compilation effort ‘Most Wanted 168th Infantry’. Comprising of ten tracks, the album covers a lot of Loyal To The Grave's past work, with the opening five tracks (‘Endless Maze’, ‘Trapped’, ‘Solitude’, ‘Picturized Canvas’ and ‘In A Roll Of Days’) all being lifted from their 2004 EP ‘Indistinct’. With acts such as Terror and Hatebreed having a strong influence on their sound, Loyal To The Grave has a firm grasp on the modern metallic hardcore sound, with all the songs coming across as well written and diverse enough to stand out from one another. The cover of Slayer’s ‘Epidemic’ and Lagwagon’s ‘Raise A Family’ barely resemble the originals with Manabu’s shortened barking vocal delivery transforming the songs into something entirely hardcore based, but solid nonetheless. The final four tracks are examples of the early origins, with ‘From The Cages’, ‘1101’, ‘168-Set Terror’ and ‘Blood Of Judas’ are all good, but sounding simplified and primitive when stacked up against the former tracks. As an added bonus, the album also contains the promotional video clip for ‘168-Set Terror’, which gives viewers some idea of what a Loyal To The Grave show looks like. The Japanese hardcore scene may not be all that well known to the world in general, but with the release of ‘Most Wanted 168th Infantry’, Loyal To The Grave is doing its part in helping spread the word.