Edgewise - Massacre Of The Innocents CD

And here we have yet another band I first heard on the East Coast Assault compilation. Edgewise was a hardcore band from West Chester, PA formed in the late '80s. After doing a great 7" called 'Silent Rage' on Smorgasbord Records, they recorded and released the 'Massacre Of The Innocents' album on Harvest Records on both LP and CD in 1993. The album also includes a re-recording of 'Silent Rage' from the 7" and a different version of 'Tolerance' from the aforementioned 'East Coast Assault' compilation. Harvest Records would also release records from bands such as Starkweather and Turmoil, and I believe it was run by Edgewise's guitarist Vince Spina.

Anyways, to me this is Edgewise's strongest output, with their mix of more traditional hardcore and metallic hardcore they had a sound unlike most bands at the time. On top of that Al Spina's vocals are hard and angry but still have a melodic edge to them at the same time. Great effort and the album definitely stands out from the crowd as a whole. After this album Edgewise did a self-titled album in 1997, which might have been some sort of reunion effort. That album was released by Gain Ground Records out of Germany, which had already re-released the 'Silent Rage' 7" as a 10" and CD in 1995 (with a completely different cover/layout, and a few bonus-tracks). Thorp Records would eventually release a discography CD in 2003.

As said to me this album is Edgewise's strongest material, although it seems that most people prefer the 'Silent Rage' material (which is great, no doubt about it). In any case, this is an underrated record for sure which I feel has been overlooked by many. I ripped & scanned the CD version, the LP has a different layout (same cover tho), but it's too big to scan in, sorry.

Edgewise - Massacre Of The Innocents CD
Edgewise myspace