Reviewed by Peter John Willoughby

This hardcore punk band from Arkansas clearly have a strong belief in Heaven and Hell, and that the only way to spend eternity in Heaven is through a relationship with Jesus Christ. The band's influences are such as Social Distortion, Comeback Kid, Bane, Stretch Armstrong, Dogwood, and MxPx. Since Take It Back!'s first album Nick Thomas has stepped up to take over as lead singer, with existing members Daniel Hawkins (guitar) and Josh Huskey (drums) being joined by new guitarist Cody Bradley. Interestingly, no bassist was credited on the album, although they now have Devin on board. There are some great shouted vocals on "New Empires" ("No longer can we wait for things to all work out/Just open up your eyes and look past your front door/Your sisters in the streets and your brothers at war/Compassion has been lost in a nation built by greed/But we could be a generation that is truly free") which hit home, while another standout song is "What We're Fighting For" which mainly contains clear vocals, with a short portion of hardcore growling. That song too can be summed up with some lyric excerpts ("So why does a difference in opinion mean that I am wrong" and "I hope that one day we will live in harmony unified in the same goal/'cause now is not the time for us to draw a line in the sand/To decide which side we're fighting for"). There are, rather disappointingly, also two covers here, Black Flag's "Rise Above" and No Innocent Victim's "To Burn Again".

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