Old Virus are a German band, form town Oelde,  playing hardcore punk. This is their first full-length album, released by Lionheart Records, and it contains thirteen tracks, which is quite a substantial dose of music. The record was released in an edition of 100 black copies and 150 splattered white copies.

Old Virus sing mostly in English, which I think helps open their music up to a wider international audience. The final track is in German, but English remains the band’s dominant language. When I was thinking about how to describe their sound, I couldn’t help feeling that it sounds a bit like Madball adding more punk elements to their hardcore and speeding things up slightly. Sheer Terror also came to mind several times while listening. Ultimately, though, I’d stick with the more general description: old-school hardcore mixed with punk.

In practice, that means you’ll find plenty of rolling, grooving passages alongside faster and more aggressive tracks. I had never heard the band before, so the record was a pleasant surprise. Musically, it works very well and, most importantly, it maintains the necessary drive from beginning to end.

Lyrically, Old Virus draw from working-class frustration, anger at society, and defiance towards its rules. There is a similar white-trash attitude here to what we know from bands like Blood For Blood, and in the case of Old Virus, this attitude feels authentic. This is a record made by outsiders who basically don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks about them. At the same time, there’s a strong feeling that whatever happens, the only real constant and anchor in the universe is rock’n’roll as a tool of defiance and resistance.

Some tracks lean more heavily towards hardcore, such as Desk Rat, while others move closer to a punk sound – Money Talks, for example, with its barking vocals. I appreciate the fact that the album keeps moving throughout and maintains a consistently solid quality across the individual tracks. There are no dead spots or moments when the record unnecessarily loses its energy.

A record for fans of old-school hardcore and hardcore punk. Old Virus show that even a combination of familiar ingredients can work very well when it’s delivered with enough energy and genuine commitment.

TOP TRACKY: RNR Suicide, Golden Boy, Shadow Of Mind