Album Review: State of Mine – Split CD w/ Octopussys

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Well, Belgium has done it again by bringing us another very promising punk rock act. If you don’t know much about State of Mine then now is the time to change that. This review will focus on the State of Mine side of the State Of Mine/Octopussys split.

When I first heard about this band I never expected them to be from Belgium. They have a different sound when it comes to Belgian punk rock, in my opinion. You can expect to hear some 90’s Swedish punk rock, some Rentokill, Smash the Statues, and even some Canadian taste with Propagandhi influences when rocking out to this band. They have that skate punk style that I’d expect from another country so I dig the fact that a Belgian band can go beyond their borders to find “their own sound”.

The “Opening sequence” of State of Mine gives us an indication of what’s to come in terms of speed and raw’ness of the songs. This instrumental is similar to what Play Attenchon/Forus have done with their releases but these guys bring more variety to their opening. The bass is highly involved in the intro I must say, some lines really stick out such as the .55 and 1:22 marks. All in all though, the bass stands out in all of the band’s songs, reminds me of the bassist of Canada’s own Oversight (RIP). As we move on, “Conspiracy Earth” starts off with the mint sounding drums and it more importantly shows off Curry’s vocal ability and I even see some Jack from Rentokill in his vocals at certain parts (i.e. .34 seconds especially) and you can now see why I indicated the influences above. He adds a beautiful hardcore element to the skate punk written songs, a very distinct voice. Again the bass is very noticeable and active in this tune. This song especially sounds as if Belgium turned Swedish for 2 minutes and 16 seconds. Next, I have to mention that the following track, “Burnout”, has a kick ass transition at 1:22 and a good job on back-ups. “How to Survive Emocore” is strong in all aspects. The final track, “Last Chance to Dance”, brings us a more hardcore element on vocals and it has the strongest chorus of all the SofM songs. The intro to this song adds a little touch of dance floor fever and in this case, bowling alley fever (as seen on the front/back cover art).

The sound in general for this release is of the raw/trashy type and it shows off what the band would sound like live. You just see too many bands these days with a clean and crisp sound that does not appeal to their live gig, it makes them sound bad to be honest. Overall, I really dig the drums on this recording, the hi-hat and snare bring it as real as it gets. Again, the bass topic comes up as Filip De Bot did a great job with that instrument. In conclusion, this proves that Belgium is quite all right with punk rock these days. It’s nice to see the older bands still making it happen in the scene, yet young blood is what is needed in today’s day and age.