Street Code are a band from Toronto, Canada, and according to what I managed to dig up, they rose from the ashes of Rough Cuts and Overpower. I mainly registered Rough Cuts as a straight-up Oi! band, not least thanks to their split EP with the British legends Red Alert. Street Code first made themselves known back in 2023 with a four-song EP released by Try And Stop Me and Longshot Music. They followed that up in 2025 with this full-length, ten-track LP, pressed in 300 copies on blue vinyl and 300 on black.
Stylistically, this is a no-compromise mix of brutal Oi! and hardcore punk. Heavy-as-hell sound, rough and shouted vocals, two guitars, pounding drums, and zero interest in smoothing out the edges. This is the kind of record that doesn’t let you breathe for a second. If The Prowlers went on tour with Terror, the driver of their tour bus would come home after two weeks on the road, lock himself in the garage, and start writing exactly this kind of music. It’s the perfect soundtrack for a night in a small, dark club filled with spilled beer and 40+ guys in flight jackets. Music for that moment when you and your crew squeeze into an elevator marked „max. 5 persons / 400 kg,“ look around at each other, and instantly know one of you has to step out — otherwise, it’s not moving. If I had to compare them to a current band, The Enforcers come to mind. Both bands know how to maintain an uncompromising drive and turn it into a convincing result.
Street Code don’t mess around, don’t slow down, and don’t take prisoners. The opening track Bring It Back hits straight away: hardcore-driven guitar riffs, relentless drums, and pissed-off vocals backed by gang-style choruses. Lyrically, it’s strong too — no skinhead cosplay here, but a call for the old-school street sound, a release of frustration, and a clear countercultural stance against society. The record continues with Go Home, In My Flight, Move On, and Dirty Town. All of them deal with destruction, frustration, and fighting against it, but without falling into cheap, fatalistic nihilism. Street Code keep things combative and grounded. From side A, Move On stands out for me personally — great momentum and perfect replay value.
The songs on the second side of the record feel slightly more melodic to my ears. While side A carries more raw frustration, side B offers more memorable musical motifs — though that might just be my subjective impression after countless repeated listens. In any case, it’s a subtle difference, not a major shift in tempo or heaviness. Tracks like This Nightmare, Hated, and Monday Morning follow. Just like on the first side, it’s hard for me to pick clear favorites here, because the LP works so well as a whole. Unfortunately, a theme appears here that I’ve experienced in my own surroundings too — the story of a friend who’s no longer with us — captured in the song Time Moves Fast. The closing track Dirty Sun introduces strong gang vocals in the style of football chants, and for me it’s one of the biggest hits on the entire record.
I keep thinking about what actually makes a great Oi! record. There are several ways to approach it, but Street Code chose to deliver a hard-hitting album with consistently strong songwriting and a clear old-school attitude. A record that does its own thing, pretends to be nothing else, and works from start to finish. For me, it’s one of the best releases of 2025. And given how perfectly their attitude and the hardcore/Oi! mix fit my taste, it might very well be the best record of the year.
TOP TRACKY: Dirty Sun, Bring It Back, In My Flight
