Hard Headed – Strength In Unity

Smith & Miller Records

 

Now I live relatively close to Belgium’s border, but I missed the memo on Hard Headed – a new band that was formed in 2019, but now – somewhat out of nowhere – delivers their first release ever for Smith & Miller Records! Entitled “Strength In Unity”, the debut of the Belgian punks and skins isn’t ‘just’ a demo-cassette or a 7” (the most common formats to debut on I reckon), but straight from the get go it’s a full-fledged, full-length album directly available on vinyl – boom!

 

But despite being an album, “Strength In Unity” is over before you know it. With twelve tracks total and a good pace in their tunes, Hard Headed’s debut doesn’t surpass the 30 minute-mark, making you easily repeat the process of listening to this LP two or three times without realizing it! Not directly because the album is exceptionally good, but it indeed listens away quite easy – making it a fun record from start to finish!

 

Musically Hard Headed’s streetcore slightly reminds me of days gone by – the late 90’s to be more precise – when bands like Discipline, Tech 9 and Hard Resistance occupied my stereo tower. But with their being said, the crude, straight-forward sound of the Belgians definitely has a more ‘punky’ feel to it (both lyrically and musically) with tracks like “Government Issues”, “Politicians”, “Working Class Boot Boy”, “Shitville Wankers”, “Where’s The Loyalty” or my favorite “Thinking Too Slow” - love it!

 

Now for some reason (probably a dumb one) I didn’t expect much of this release, but Hard Headed surprised me in a positive way with “Strength In Unity”! Sure, it’s pretty straight-forward and it includes all the cliches (at least most of them), but the CD (which is included for free with the vinyl) kept playing on repeat over and over again!