Album Review :
All In - Nothing To Lose

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Band: All In
Title: Nothing To Lose
Label: Hand Of Hope
Release Date: 10/17/2006
Review By: Josh IndieVision

Tracklisting:

01. All Intro
02. Babar: The Bill Cosby Of Elephants
03. The Ol’ Doo Rag’s A Skipper
04. Richard’s Grooshy
05. Toy Stencil And The Ten Foot Tall Riffs
06. The Bunk Price Is Right
07. Sarcasm Killed The Rabies
08. Four Score And A Broham Stitches Ago
09. The Institute Of Zoot Suit McGoot
10. Scooter X Catmosh
11. Ka Ka Kablow! The Triple Chicken Bite
12. Duck Billsappapuss
13. It Starts With One Sleeve Of Extraordinary Gentlesauce

Members/Duties:

Scott Hodnett: Vocals
Brooks Etheredge: Guitar, BGV’s
Brandon Brown: Guitar
Chris Robinson: Bass
Kyle Roberts: Drums

I’m glad to see other labels taking note of the talent in band’s who are Christian. Hand of Hope has consistently picked up bands who fit that realm and it turned out well for them (Every New Day, Society’s Finest, The Burning Season). All In was one of 2 Christian hardcore outfits the label picked up recently, but remain the only one after The Red Baron split up. All In brings hardcore in a tough guy, beatdown fashion.

Slow-paced chugging guitar rhythms and pounding drums are the main approach here. They follow in the vein of a Seventh Star, who also don’t rely on sheer speed to devastate the audiences. After a quick breakdown intro, the band jumps in to the lively “Babar: The Bill Cosby Of Elephants” where the 2-stepping abounds. There are a few good breakdowns and some gang vocals mixed in. “Toy Stencil And The Ten Foot Tall Riffs” speeds things up a bit temporarily and until dropping back into their normal trudging pace.

Overall Rating: The band won’t take the helm of the hardcore movement but they will do well with fans of toughguy hardcore. The vocals do tend to blur the distinctions between songs because Scott’s vocal range is quite small. That’s something that I would work on a bit more. It can get hard to listen to the album because of it’s repetition.Plenty of breakdowns and two-step timing. Great lyrics with a message people should be hearing! I hope for big things for these guys.

Standout Tracks:“Toy Stencil…”, “The Bunk Price Is Right”, “Scooter X Catmosh”

Individual Ratings:

Lyrics: Realizing we cannot handle life on our own (“Babar: The Bill Cosby Of Elephants”, Getting knocked down and having Christ lift you up (“Ka Ka Kablow! The Triple Chicken Bite”, and a call for Christians to stand up and fight (“Duck Billsappapus”)

Marketability: Hardcore is pretty big right now although the true hardcore doesn’t really make it as far on TV and radio as does their metalcore counterparts. This band should be able to jump on a bunch of tours, which in hardcore is where you pick up your fans. I haven’t seen them live yet, so I cannot judge. But based on music alone it seems like they would get the crowd into things.

Similar To: Seventh Star, In Due Time, Call To Preserve

Myspace
Purevolume
Hand Of Hope Records

Buy: here

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