Death Before Dishonor‘s approach to metallic hardcore is and will always be to spew it out there like it’s rented by the hour. There are no intros, intermissions, samples, or acoustic guitars on Unfinished Business (Bridge 9), only bad intentions and bricks. Death Before Dishonor dishes out the hardcore like the great poet Joey Diaz describes as “to sling dick with three hands.’ Such elegant prose rarely gets used in this publication, but Unfinished Business requires such language.

And I’m sure you’re sitting at home with a cold beverage in hand while waiting for the next New England Metal and Hardcore Fest lineup to be announced and saying to yourself “no shit, Sherlock, that’s what Death Before Dishonor does.” But how quickly do we forget that their last studio album was Better Ways to Die released in, I don’t know, 2009? Sure, we know that they’re slated to demolish at this year’s This Is Hardcore festival, but there was never any guarantee as to what new music was going to pan out like.

But fortunately for all the slam-dancers considering an early exit out of mosh retirement, Death Before Dishonor is still in the beatdown business. Let’s just examine the breakdowns in the tandem attack of ‘True Defeat’ and ‘Freedom Dies’ and let me know what the early stages of CTE feel like. And if you like things at a more livelier New York tempo, then ‘Bad Blood’ has the speed and bullshit you need on ‘Cowards Will Fall’ is more than happy to break its foot in your ass. However, let’s take a minute to shout out musical growth as ‘Promises of Yesterday’ lays a nice surprise upon us in the form of a ripping and melodic guitar solo. See, it’s not all just caveman riffs.

It’s not for everyone, but after all this time, Death Before Dishonor hasn’t lost an inch of what got them to the dance.

7 / 10

HANS LOPEZ