The Dutch quintet pack one hell of a punch on their debut album!
It’s only recently that I came to realise just how rich the Benelux region is in metallic hardcore. Be it the recent return of veterans such as Born From Pain and Ancestral Sin, to younger bands such as Mindwar (the Belgians’ debut ‘Still At War’ is a belter), and now this first offering from West Netherlands quintet Rival Pack.
Packing ten tracks into just under half an hour, it has to be said that there are few surprises in store here for fans of the likes of Agnostic Front, Hatebreed and Terror. However, if you’re going to tread a well-worn musical path, you might as well do a great job of it, and Rival Pack do exactly that; the lack of originality really doesn’t matter much when their songwriting skills are this sharp. Care for a feast of thrashy riffing, powerhouse drumming and gang vocals? Step this way – these guys have plenty of all three, and they mix them to devastating effect.
There’s no doubting their sincerity, either. In the words of the band themselves: “It’s about not running from your pain, but facing it head-on. Only then can you discover your true strength — the strength to be yourself.” Certainly, the members of Rival Pack have faced plenty of adversity over the years, and they’ve channelled all that struggle to great ends in songs like ‘Killer In The Pool’ (which boasts an absolute beast of a breakdown) and ‘Free From Pain’.
The ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach means that, occasionally, the tracks kind of blend into one another. For the most part, though, ‘Burn’ is refreshing in its often brutal honesty and total lack of pretension. The aforementioned hardcore veterans can’t go on forever, but as long as there are newer bands to carry the torch as well as Rival Pack do here, they can rest easy.
Main Photo Credit: MEGAN KEIZER
- Facing Fire
- Closing In
- Too Strong
- Killer In The Pool
- Burn
- Free From Pain
- Untold
- Don’t Waste My Time
- Death And The City
- No One Else
Follow Rival Pack on Their Socials:
Need more Punk In Your Life?
Live review: Drunktank, Tape It Shut, Reason To Leave and Launch Control at The Butler, Reading 8/3/2026
How about a quiet Sunday afternoon in the English town of Reading? Nah!! Top local promoters Shadow Promotions DIY are putting on four punk bands
Live review: The Bones, Blisterhead and S.L.U.G. at Plan B, Malmö, Sweden 7/3/2026
Last Saturday night in Malmö, Sweden was legedary punk’n’rollers The Bones’ first outing this year, supported by skatecore youngsters S.S.U.G. and street punks Blisterhead. As
Interview: Alex catches up with Mel of hardcore stalwarts Emergency Broadcast
It’s been a while since we heard hardcore that combines brawn and brains as well as London-based quartet Emergency Broadcast do on new EP ‘Make
Album review: Darkwave crew Fotocrime release ‘Security’
Harnessing the fury of Killing Joke and the man-vs-machine churn of Ministry for a new era, Fotocrime release their fifth album ‘Security’ on Friday 13th
Baz Warne’s autobiography – ‘No Grass Grows On A Busy Street: 25 Years On The Road With The Stranglers’
An intriguing, in-depth portal into Baz’s experience as guitarist and singer of one of the world’s best known bands, we become absorbed by tales of
Live review: Screeching Weasel / El Sancho / Square Shapes / The Noids, Honolulu, 28/2/26
Screeching Weasel recently played their first ever shows in Hawaii, with The Noidz, Square Shapes, and El Sancho in support on the Saturday. Our newest
I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
Did you know that we are 100% DIY? We run our own game. No one dictates to us, and no one drives what we can or cannot put on our pages – and this is how we plan to continue!
