Band : Strength Approach

Album title : All The Plans We Made Are Going To Fail

Label : GSR Music

Distributor : Suburban

Release date : 16/05/2008

Release : CD

Is it because in their capitol city Italians come more in contact with English speaking people than anywhere else in the land of spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, and chianti wine? I don't know, but overall one might take that as a very safe assumption! Of course, in the case of Rome based Hardcore quintet Strength Approach (current line-up comprised of singer Alex , guitarists Roberto and Mirko , bassist Emiliano C. and drummer Emiliano ) the understanding and speaking of good English may simply be due to the fact that they've been around since 1996.

The local Hardcore scene at the time being completely stagnant, SA came blowing in like a fresh wind, but the boys would take their time breaking through the strict confinds of the Italian scene. Following their self-titled debut 7-inch, the boys (with a line-up that would still be subject to changes in those days) came the Keep the Standards High 7-inch released on Belgian label Siton , then a split with Florida's Esteem on German imprint Keep It Alive , and by the time they set out on their first European tour (which would see them travelling through France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Holland, Belgium, and the UK – where they co-headlined on London's Evil Fest ) they had released yet another 7-inch entitled Just Leaving Home . A second tour came in 2001 in support of their freshly issued anthology compilation 96-2K1 , issued through Hold On Records . The band completely sold out that album during the tour, which was this time concentrated on the Eastern European countries. Settling into a somewhat more stable line-up during 2002, SA re-issued their anthology compilation, plus a mini-CD titled The Fall Through My Eyes during 2003, and again set out on a run of 25 gigs throughout Europe (including Scandinavia and Eastern Europe) during that same Summer. 2004 again saw some line-up changes, the re-release of the mini-CD, and the release of the band's first real full-length album Sich Hearts Die Young through Wynona/ Hurry Up . Of course the release was again supported by a tour during August, and it was followed up by two more tours the year after. During 2006 the band not only continued their extensive touring of Europe, but also made it over to Japan for the first time. By the end of the same year the Piece By Piece 7-inch got released by the Defiant Hearts label, which the band again supported by more gigs around Europe.

Stylistically, SA is into the '80s kind of short-sharp-shock songs, the tracks' lengths (with a few exceptions) usually under the two-minute limit. Meaning that the 15 tracks on this album don't even last 29 minutes! GSR again gives an indication of the kind of Hardcore fans that might be into the Romans' music, feeling fans of Sick Of It All , Minor Threat , Slapshot , and Kid Dynamite would find something of their liking here...and again I have to agree! Check it out for yourself by surfing to myspace.com/strengthapproach, where you'll find mp3-files for the album opening songs "Anthem For A Wasted Generation" and the album title song, plus one song off the debut album and the Piece By Piece EP. Somewhat diverging from the beaten track are "Forked Tongue" and "Far From Glory" , which deliver their message in under a minute and are therefore even more concisive and to-the-point than the other tracks. On the other side of "length" are the 2:45 "Die Alone" (which even gets a short "intro", but otherwise seems to be finished justas swiftly as its shorter brothers and sisters in SA songhood) and album closer I'd Rather Fall On My Own Mistakes Than Have You Bring Me Down On Yours" . With lyrics found exclusively in the song title, this track with the incredible length (when compared to the rest of the album) of 5:40 is composed of two parts, the first 105 seconds being a somewhat "normal" song, the rest actually a more "experimental" and instrumental album ending.

People into discovering a band's worth in live conditions will be pleased to hear that the guys are soon going on tour throughout Europe. At the end of May there's a few gigs in Germany, followed by a couple of gigs in the UK early June (they're still looking for gigs in the Calais area, hoping to fill the void of a couple of days), and will be at Jeugdhuis Den Eglantier in Antwerp on June 7 before going back home. The actual European tour (in support of H2O ) starts in Holland (Den Bosch) on June 26 and will see the band play gigs in Holland, Italy, Germany, Budapest, France, the UK (where they will be joined by Death By Stereo on two occasions) up to June 19 th . For dates after that, keep an eye on the band's Myspace page. Oh gee...I almost forgot to tell you: SA have added Mustafa (whom already brought some addotional vocals to the album title track...as did To Kill 's XjoshX to another song, and one Christian Di Vito to the album closer) to their line-up.

98/100

Tony.