Save Your Scene (by Leonardo 10-05-06)
It has been a while since I had heard of hardcore in Pescara. In the past this southern city of Italy offered few good bands, but that was many years ago. And now it’s niceto discover someone still cares about this music in there.
Started out during the end of 2003, Straight Opposition play heavy, violent hardcore just as you would expect with Terror’s “Lowest of the Low” Era: Fast double pedal parts mixed to many midtempo breaks, a thick wall of punching guitars and a shouter spitting out his rage with nonchalance. To be sincere, this sounds a lot like Terror’s old stuff, but that’s not bad thing to me. Also because, by reading the lyrics you can perceive these guys got a positive attitude and it’s not about the typical meathead concepts. The productions is kinda beefy and makes justice to the kind of hc the band plays, adding therefore more punch to the whole picture. I would also mention the last track, sang in italian and dedicated to the Pescara Hardcore Crew with guest vocals from a local freestyler. That is badass one, also because the dude says right things about the cops! Well, bottomline is that Straight Opposition positively surprised me. This 4 piece knows how to play straight up, straightforward hardcore and they do show that with this record. Let’s hope they manage to get some exposure as that would be fully deserved.
Trusidemusic (by Elvis 24-04-06)
Italy, and here’s the next band from the south of Europe. STRAIGHT OPPOSITION is their name and this is their first full- length “Step By Step”. So where should I start? What do they sound like is definitely a good starting question. Well they sound like Biohazard, Terror, Hatebreed and so on. Is that enough? No? Well let’s see what we got also. Does anyone remember that shitty German band Brightside from Kassel? Well if you do just imagine Brightside and you’ll get STRAIGHT OPPOSITIONS sound. So in case of this it´s definitely not my cup of coffee. I’ll dislike stuff like this and also I’ll dislike Hip Hop in Hardcore. Hip Hop influences in Hardcore songs are the biggest bullshit of all. “Step By Step” features ten songs including that Hip Hop track and Indelirium Records released them. All in all said musically this ain´t something cool, only the lyrics are ok, but that´s it.
Doneandoner (by Antiprayer 15-04-06)
Ecco il primo full-lenght degli Straight Opposition, band di Pescara nata nel 2002. Sin dai primi secondi di ascolto, è subito individuabile molto chiaramente il loro vero obiettivo: cioè un hardcore tirato ma allo stesso tempo concentrato sulla potenza, e che spesso giunge alle soglie del limite da una parte con il crust, dall\'altrea con il cross over. Si potrebbe affermare che il gruppo tenti di fondere i Cripple Bastards con gli Hatebreed. C\'è da dire comunque che spesso il quartetto riesce in tutto questo, ma è dopo aver ascoltato qualche traccia che viene a galla il difetto più rilevante, che sta non tanto nelle strutture dei verse in sé, quanto in quelle delle intere canzoni. Infatti, anche se la qualità tecnica è apprezzabile, spesso si pecepisce una monotonia generale che lascia un po\' di amaro in bocca.
Degni di nota sono invece i testi, molto impegnati politicamente, che, sebbene strutturalmente semplici, risultano chiari e sinceri.
Kronic.it (by Stefano Fantino 11-4-06)
Incoraggiante debutto su Indelirium per gli Straight Opposition, gruppo di Pescara dedito ad un hardcore decisamente robusto ed aggressivo. Di questi dieci pezzi piace soprattutto la attitudine incompromissoria che rimanda ad un certo hardcore metallizzato nei suoni ma sicuramente old-school nella struttura.
Oltre a pur presenti richiami a gruppi odierni quali Terror e gli Hatebreed meno metal, mentre ascolto questi ragazzi mi viene sempre in mente un vecchio glorioso gruppo come gli Integrity, soprattutto per la voce davvero straziante di Ivan che ricorda anche un altro gruppo di cui i pescaresi riprendono la marzialità sonoro, ovvero i philadelphiani Turmoil.
Si tratta di un buon inizio soprattutto perché il gruppo ha trovato ora il suo naturale sbocco in un contesto hardcore dopo aver iniziato con sonorità differente. Il tempo porterà sicuramente una maggiore flessibilità in un tessuto al momento molto rigido e, conseguentemente, ripetitivo sulla lunga distanza. Ciò non toglie che siamo di fronte ad un disco soddisfacente con dei testi interessanti ed antagonisti. In chiusura Pescara Hard Core, dalle tinte crossoveristiche (ospiti C.U.B.A. Cabbal) a rimarcare un passato, musicalmente parlando, cui gli Straight rimangono ancora legati.
All-about-chaos.net (by Ivan 10-3-06)
Another promising release by Indelirium Records: after the new albums by Multiball and The Orange Man Theory this time it’s up to Pescara’s Straight Opposition to make their debut called “Step by step”. The band defines itself “positive hardcore” and also the name, Straight Opposition, was suggesting some cool melodic old school youthcrew hardcore. But instead of a sound in the vein of American Nightmare, Count Me Out or Carry On the sound of this band is more comparable to tougher acts such as Terror, Until The End, Turmoil, Shattered Realm, No Innocent Victim or Stigmata after starting out following more that Biohazard or Downset thing. In fact this one is tough as hell, the hardcore played by these 4 guys delivers anger and frustration, the songs are a nice kick in the ass and the vocals are very violent and sometimes it’s even difficult to understand what this guy says. Musically it’s not wrong to talk about some beatdown or thugcore influences as well, so consider Straight Opposition a band also in the vein of some Skarhead, Boxcutter or Vietnom by checking out the last hip hop track sung in Italian language which features C.U.B.A. Caball as guest vocal (sincerely I don’t who’s that guy but anyway seems to be an icon in the Pescara hardcore or whatever else scene) and a mix done by DJ Luca Bullshit (same speech for this one too). This last track made me laugh a bit, after a lot of dedicated lyrics a moment of pure ignorance was necessary, I love this! But ok, as I said Straight Opposition is not a bunch of violent tattooed tough guys who train in a gym and beat up people in the streets, it’s a band which apply a positive attitude to the concepts of “struggle”, “unity” and “critical reason” against the enslavement process of the mass society. As every true hardcore record “Side by side” delivers a message against mass society with a song such as “Revolt!”, against falsity, envy and lies as written in “Manifest of integrity” and in support of a positive way of life as the songs “Step by step” and “When the fury is a positive strength” suggest. I was very confident in this record at first because Pescara is full of dedicated people to good hardcore and already home of the great When Mind Reflects who’ve re-released their full length on the same label and secondly because Indelirium Records was doing such a nice job right now and I see no reason why doing the wrong choice in a good moment of shape. Yes, I am quite satisfied with this record which is a sign that the Italian hardcore scene, both in its old and new school acts, is facing a good time. Ah, cool artwork! Let’s see who will be the next, yo!
