Media Blitz – No Regrets

Anyone who knows me knows that the guys in Media Blitz are some of my best buds in the world. With this is mind one would probably assume that I would automatically like and support anything that they did. However over the years they have done a lot of things that I disagreed with- keeping the name Media Blitz being the most significant of these charges when considering that Jason Schwartz is the only original member of the band. Considering that I have been pretty close with several  of the former members of Media Blitz this bummed me out since almost all of them would have preferred that Jason would have changed the name. The second charge that I held against them was that their songs often had seemingly no meaning behind them and were negative for the sake of being negative when the guys in the band were actually anything but negative.

Given all of these facts I might actually be the band's harshest critic. With that being said I can say with complete honesty that this record rips.

Since Media Blitz recorded their most recent C.D. demo a lot has changed. Most significantly they had their 300th personnel change with their two guitarists- Wes Nile Virus and Rob Beverly quitting the band and being replaced by "Shreddie" Eddie Oropeza who is one of the few guitarists that I know who could effortlessly replace two guitarists with one swoop. Secondly the band has made a conscious effort to write songs with more thoughtful lyrics and less generic music behind it. Now I'm not saying that their demo wasn't good- in fact I will begrudgingly admit that I even like some of their songs like "I Hate You A Lot" and "Get The Fuck Out," despite their obvious derivations from Outbreak and Shark Attack. However those songs were clearly the product of a band who lacked their own vision. The songs on "No Regrets" on the other hand show a band that has matured and learned that song writing is a process that requires thought and effort to be successful.

The record opens wit squealing divebombs on the guitar that practically put Warzone and Murphy's Law to shame. The opening tune, which is called "Feeding Time" reflects the cut throat nature of capitalism with some actually pretty clever lyrics- "Smaller government and smaller hearts/Taking family dreams and tearin' them apart/An army built on minimum wage/Put to death by interest paid." It also has a pretty killer mosh part that likewise would fit in pretty well with a Warzone song. "Self Worth" has similar themes about economic woes but deals with things with a little more of a sense of humor ("I wish I could say money means nothing to me/But pizza and records aren't free"). "Never Grow Up," which is another stand out track for it's fast verse and chorus and super sick mosh break, deals with the classic Hardcore theme of friends growing away from each other and giving up on youthful idealism.

The second side of "No Regrets" is perhaps a little less powerful than the first side, but still kills it nonetheless. "The Difference" is sort of a modern day answer to Half Off's "Rain On the Parade," calling out closed minded Straight Edge kids who turn a positive philosophy into a negative trend. "No One To Blame" is the highlight of the second side with its hyper space speed and singalong onslaught.  "Not Just Words" gets some points for its grammatically correct reworking of an Insted line (where Insted said "You and me- we'll make the difference," Media Blitz counters with "You and I, We can make a difference").

In one concise statement I will say that Media Blitz are making all of us Negative Sid and Nancy's eat our critical words with this record. The only criticism that I can make (and believe me when I say I've tried to find others) is that the vocals are a little quiet in the mix, but otherwise this is a killer record that will surely legitimize Media Blitz's developing title as the new spokesmen for Orange County Hardcore. I'm sure some people will sleep on this record but it will be their loss.

Band MySpace: www.myspace.com/mediablitz

 

-Ditch-
Big Wheel Online Magazine
 

 

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