Band : Discipline
Album title : Old Pride New Glory
Label : I Scream
Distributor : Hard Life Promotion - CNR
Release date : June 2008
Release : (Double) CD

I never quite like this Eindhoven (Holland) based Street Punk band. Besides the fact that they have an image which invited both Street Punks, Skins, and hooligans to their early shows...with the inevitable fights as result...they also have a "tough guy" attitude which I always found had little to do in a music scene concentrated on peaceful co-existence! Besides, even today the band continues to revel in its attraction to the darker side of society, as well proven by the welcoming words at the band's own webpage dicipline.nl ("Welcome to all you Skins, Punks, Hardcore kids, Hooligans, Psychos, Thugs and Outlaws..."). The guys ain't exactly quite industrious either, as it's now over 3 years ago since their last full-length Downfall Of The Working Man (which came 3 years after its predecessor, Saints & Sinners).

The band continues on their lazy streak by making this album completely composed of covers. And, I don't know whether the band even realizes it, but there's a thoroughly negative side to the album title they chose. I mean, am I the only one to understand that Discipline endeavours to profit from the efforts of bands before them? That they are seeking "new glory" with the "old pride" of their predecessors and influencial bands? Well, who cares, for once they've brought an album which I can actually completely enjoy (because, you see, in spite of the fact that I lothe the band's attitudes, I did buy some of their albums...how else can I form an honest negative view on them?)!

As far as the material goes, the band has sought out music from both Hardcore, Punk, and Metal/ Hard Rock, and gives us a possibly fair view into those acts which were influencial to their early days. Of course, there's Agnostic Front (cover song = "Power", of course) and Warzone ("Don't Forget The Struggle"), and Cro-Mags ("Show You No Mercy"), but also the more Punk-oriented The Ramones ("I Wanna Live"), The Crack (an obscure band from the early '80s, song = "My World") and 4 Skins ("One Law For Them"). Goin' back in time, we find the almighty Motörhead's "Stand") and Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" as representatives from the Metal world. From the Hard Rock world, there hàd to be Holland's own Golden Earring ("Going To The Run"), Heavy Metal Kids ("Delirious"), Billy Idol ("Rebel Yell"), and eventually the effervescent Slade ("Cum On Feel The Noize"). In all, that gives the listener 12 tracks for a good 36 minutes!

Well, the guys possibly got enough money for the studio to continue recording some more stuff, so they did, filling a bonus disc with 18 covers for a total of almost 51 minutes worth of music (some of which was obviously taken from other sources to make the compilation a little more attractive in quantity). Regretfully, no more info was given on the bonus tracks than their titles, so yours truly had to go out on research to find out where Discipline swiped the mustard. Here's what I found: from Cockney Rejects you get "War On The Terraces" and "Generation Of Scars", and of course there's another Slade ("When I'm Dancing I Ain't Fighting") and Agnostic Front ("Crucified"). But you'll also find Misfits ("Astro Zombies"), Rose Tattoo (twice, with "One Of the Boys" and "Nice Boys"), The Business (also twice, with "Hang Up Your Boots" and "Saturday's Heroes"), Stranglers ("No More Heroes"), Social Distortion ("Prison Bound"), Blitz ("Fight To Live"), Last Resort (or Madball...I ain't sure which was first, with "Violence In Our Minds" in a live version). For two tracks ("Runnin' Riot" and "Frontline Skins"), the only connection I found pointed to Discipline itself...which leaves only three tracks which came from I don't know where! By the way, there's a clear difference between disc one and disc two, quite a few of the songs on the latter being brought in a very simplified manner (mainly concentrating on the choruses for lyrics).

No matter what my feelings are about Discipline themselves, they've brought us a very nice covers album. Not one I would purposedly go out to the record store for myself, but which I've found to be very entertaining indeed. Of course, this is mainly a fan collectable...and as it IS a compilation of sorts, ther's no rating!

Tony.