Filled with rapid punk riffs and an extremely hardcore edge, this quartet blazes through a dozen songs in just over 20 minutes. But they do tend to deliver the goods on the opener, "Play It Safe," which evolves into a slower but meaty rock blueprint in the vein of
Rancid and then
Metallica. Perhaps most surprisingly, the songs sound very complete despite their brief running times (around 90 seconds or even less), including the punishing drum fills on "Vacancy," a song that wastes little time finding its feet. Rants such as "Number One" and "Scars May Fade" sound like a tamer
Sex Pistols or
the Damned, although the rhythm section is very tight. The latter tune also has a nu-metal finale in the vein of
Limp Bizkit and even
Metallica. "Mid-Course Correction" changes gears somewhat as the guitar riffs give way to more of a high-energy yet controlled feeling. A similar vein is hit on the catchy "Bite the Curb" and also on "The Rain," which brings
Social Distortion in their infancy to mind. While the album sounds similar a lot of the time, "Step Up to the Plate" tends to separate itself from the other tracks (if only for less than a minute) with a rather crunchy flavor to its style. It's a good album but doesn't do anything extraordinary for hardcore punk fans. ~ Jason MacNeil