The past decade a lot of bands have been labeled as FFO American Nightmare. Most of the times a reference good enough for me to check the band out. 9 out of 10 times this resulted in another disappointment. Bands a plenty who are inspired by Wes Eisolds lyrics and the all around look of American Nightmare. What most bands forget is to go back to the early American Nightmare songs. The band is basically fast straight up hardcore. There’s no slow stuff there so why the hell do American Nightmare inspired bands end up sounding like This Is Hell? It still beats me.

The other thing that keeps my mind busy from time to time is why the one really good American Nightmare spin off called Sworn In never made it past their 7″. And why no British band tried to follow up on the sound of that EP. Enter The Pact, a fairly new band from Sheffield. The same town that once brought the pretty good In The Clear and the even better The Last Chance.

Now I’m not saying The Pact are the new American Nightmare or Sworn In. They still have a long way to go to reach that level, but there’s something in the four songs on this demo that truly makes me think of aforementioned bands, in a good way. They got the same feeling of desperation, rage and anger. And yes, it seems like here are a couple of guys who did listen to the early American Nightmare stuff and added a bit of Right Brigade. All in all a very strong contender for demo of the year.

So without further ado, check out The Pact. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Print this page