I’d never heard of Eightfold Path Records prior to hearing this record, but it seems to me that they’re picking up where Equal Vision left off in their early Shelter/108/Prema days, featuring plenty of thought-provoking hardcore bands with borderline “spiritual” undertones. Atlanta’s Foundation also picks up right where bands like Trial and Outspoken stopped, delivering that heavy-yet-emotional brand of hardcore that dominated the mid-to-late ‘90s. Fast, heavy and breakdown-laden yet without even a hint of brutish posturing with lots of those great talking-to-yelling vocal buildups that completely characterized the subgenre they so obviously worship. I thought I’d grown way past getting into new bands of this particular persuasion, but Foundation has officially proven me wrong. Straight edge hardcore, who knew? –Dave Williams
–guest (Eightfold Path, www.eightfoldpathrecords.com)