It has been some time since I last got to review a release from Alveran Records. For all of you who do not know Alveran, it is a label specializing in Hardcore releases. As you can easily understand, DIE YOUNG is a Hardcore band, and without having read any bio notes and stuff, I am pretty sure they are from USA, the land that born Hardcore music. Let's see if these guys have the guts such a band needs to have to prove its quality.

As I said above, DIE YOUNG is a Hardcore band. They were formed in 2002 and they hail from Texas. Upon searching for previous releases by this band, the only things I could find were a split CD with 7 GENERATIONS, an EP and two 7 inch records, so I assume this must be their debut album. This album also marks the start of DIE YOUNG's cooperation with Alveran Records.

The first thing that is 100% Hardcore in this album is the number of its tracks and the duration. We are talking about an album with fourteen tracks whose duration is approximately twenty-five minutes! When I listened to it for the first time, I didn't even realize when it was over! Seems more like a Grindcore thing to me! Anyway, the band's music is directly influenced by bands like EARTH CRISIS (especially regarding the vocals), INTEGRITY and a bit of TERROR. You can easily understand that we have to deal with a brutal Hardcore band. The speed can be described as a relentless aggressive outbreak. There are not many times that you will come across mid tempo riffing. The band cannot be characterized as a classic Hardcore one since their music does not only contain the common brutal stuff, but these seem to be able to handle melody, too. They do not overuse it so as not to make them a Metalcore band, but they fit it right in their brutality creating a pretty interesting mixture.

DIE YOUNG's  Graven Images is an album that will please not only the Hardcore fans, but will also be a great choice for extreme fans of both Core and Metal extreme genres. Although it won't be one of your top albums for 2007, it will definitely accompany you for a long time.