Berthold City – Moment of Truth EP

If you like your hardcore bursting with tons of energy, this record will have you pounding the floor in no time, or pointing your finger in the air while singing along to these straight edge bangers.

Featuring members of Final Fight, Allegiance, Internal Affairs, and the legendary Strife among many others, LA’s Berthold City are rooted in the scene to the bone. With such an impressive lineup, the music is bound to deliver a great outburst of hardcore fury, and so it does.

Their latest Moment of Truth EP is six tracks of straight edge hardcore that follows the simple but effective formula of In My Eyes, Judge, and Project X. Andrew Kline’s vocals overflow with energy and enthusiasm, giving each song on the record an unadulterated intensity and power. The lyrics are barebone simplistic, but bound to make an impact. Mastered by NYHC legend Don Fury and executed by some true veterans of the scene, you have a pretty solid 7-inch that posi-jumps high above the run-of-the-mill youth crew revival bands.

Moment of Truth doesn’t exactly reinvent the genre with its standard fast parts, breakdowns and gang vocals, but it’s produced to near perfection. So if you’re not pounding the floor at the end of Moment of Truth, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you. At the end of the day, these guys have been doing hardcore for decades, they know the game and Berthold City is proof that they still love it as much as when they were in high school.

Oh yeah… if you’re wondering what’s with the name Berthold City, I’ll tell you right now. It’s a famous font used in the artwork of bands like SSD, Chain of Strength, Gorilla Biscuits, and many others. So the next time you want to start a straightforward, youth crew-inspired hardcore band, you can download the font and make your name stand out in bold letters, too.