Guitars, Drums, Tones, and Saxophones

H2O - Nothing to Prove

H2O are a modern-day hardcore institution. Which might be kind of odd, since their previous album to 2008′s Nothing to Prove came out in 2001. I suppose you have to have built a fanbase of extremely loyal fans to have people not lose interest in the 7 years between new material. Particularly considering that 2001′s Go was alright, but a bit lackluster.

H2O fans have been rewarded for their patience, though, with an excellent return-to-form from Toby and the boys. Nothing to Prove finds the band rocking as hard at they ever did, and their attack hasn’t dulled or changed at all in the interalbum gap.

The album opens with a sound clip of a child saying “For those who don’t know… H2O go!” Amusing? Cute? Sure, the first time or two. You stop noticing it after a few listens. What you don’t stop noticing, though, is the large number of between-song bits of people talking there are. Usually just 5 second clips, but still, they’re all over the place. And if that wasn’t enough, the last song, “What Happened?” ends with a long series of these snippets, which are made up of family and friends talking about H2O. I guess these clips are trying to make a point, but I personally think they just distract from the music, and break up the flow of the album in a way that hurts the album as a whole.

It’s a testament to the songs, then, that I still enjoy this album as much as I do, despite the building energy of each song being stopped from carrying into the next song by conversational clips. While the songs resemble streetpunk more than hardcore, per se, the songs still rock, no matter the genre tag. Toby Morse enunciates clearly, so singing along doesn’t require you to shred your vocal chords. That’s right nice of him. And a lot of the songs involve a fun round of “guess the guest singer.” Appearances are made by Kevin Seconds, Matt Skiba, and a whole bunch of others. It works, especially when you consider that H2O have always seemed to be about solidarity in the scene and with your friends. Making this a group effort, larger than just the band itself, kind of reinforces that point.

It also should be noted that, despite being a straight edge band, and singing about being “edge,” they do so without being pretentious assholes, which is pretty unusual. I have no problem with most edge kids I know, but we all know those self-righteous, overly-militant fuckwits who feel the need to push their lifestyle on everyone around them. They’re the Christian right of punk rock. Rant aside, H2O don’t fall into that category, and thank goodness.

Tags: h2o