Seattle-based straight-edge punks
Champion take the full-length plunge with
Time Slips Away, a compilation of the band's first two EPs, Come Out Swinging and
Count Our Numbers. Too young (by about two decades) to have participated in the first go-round of politically and socially charged hardcore,
Champion do a fair job of re-creating the sound and fury of early-'80s hardcore in songs like "The Decline" and "Assume the Worst." They also nod in their elders' direction with respectful covers of
Dag Nasty's "One to Two" and Alone in a Crowd's "Is Anybody There?" Overall, though, this is museum punk, music that seems to be trying so hard to color within the lines of accepted straight-edge punk in terms of musical style and lyrical matter that there's little that's particularly new or exciting on
Time Slips Away. A little more individuality would do
Champion a lot of good. ~ Stewart Mason