Live By The Sword - S/T CD

Rebellion Records

 

If you don’t own a turntable, there’s a good chance you passed up on a good portion of Live By The Sword’s discography. The reason is plain and simple, as the band’s contributions to the “Oi! Ain’t Dead”-series (volume 5 and 7) were the only tracks available on a compact-disc... - so far! Because with the release of this self-titled (though it might as well be an untitled) CD, the Dutch-American alliance slammed their complete discography on one shiny little disc!

 

Completely re-mastered, you will find every single song of Live By The Sword’s debut single, the “Pillaged Hinterland” single, the earth-shattering 12” release, the “Scars Of The Ages” phonosheet and the aforementioned compilation contributions on this disc - for a grand total of 16 songs and nearly 50 minutes of brute, powerful skinhead rock! Featuring Wouter (Squalor, Razorblade, Soultamer), Daan (Downslide, Justice, Cornered and many, many more) and Freek/Sander (Sex Drive, Fehler/I-Reject), Live By The Sword’s Dutch trio delivers the band’s tough, powerful sound, while American Erick (Strongarm And The Bullies) spits the words out with his thunderous vocals - brilliant!

 

As I already own (multiple) copies of every single record Live By The Sword released or was featured on, I didn’t find anything new on this compact-disc. Yet the fresh master makes everything sound crisper, fuller and stronger than ever before - especially the older songs! Along with a 12-page booklet, that contains all lyrics - except of the covers “Intimidation” (The Bruisers) and “Pawns In Their Game” (The Templars) - and some nice, atmospheric photographs that many black metal bands wouldn’t mind using as cover artwork for their next release, it justifies the purchase of this CD - even if you own all of the band’s vinyl already!

 

But especially if you don’t, or hardly, own any Live By The Sword releases due to the aforesaid reason, this CD is an absolute must! “L.B.T.S.”, “Pillaged Hinterland”, “Emergency”, “Rats And Snakes”, “Jealousy”, “Death Dawn Rising”, “Fire” and “Scars Of The Ages” - this band delivered hit after hard-hitting hit in their - so far - short existence and, if those ten-thousand whirlwinds can keep their cool for a while, with hopefully many more years to come! Rock against rats and snakes!