Empowerment

Sometimes I buy records simply to support bands that I think are worthy of support without being 100% convinced of the music. Empowerment from Stuttgart falls under this category. I've seen them live a couple of times and all of the shows were a lot of fun. Great live band. Plus, this is a band that has something to say and actually mean it, which sadly is not a given anymore in the hardcore scene. Empowerment play NYHC (and nothing else!) better than most of the OG NYHC bands I know. Their attitude on the other hand is rather punk, especially compared with classic NYHC, which has a tendency towards conservatism, patriotism and a lot of other '-isms' I think have no place in hardcore/punk. I rarely hear of bands from that niche of hardcore or hardcore in general that outspoken against patriotism, anti-immigration initiatives, homophobia or the use of the word "retarded/behindert". I don't like their overly stated localism, which is also true for most hardcore bands, but there are still a lot of good reasons to support this band in my book. Now, as far as the music is concerned, there are some really good songs on this LP, but it isn't that great a LP. I know that a lot of people will probably disagree with this statement, since Empowerment are huge in Germany right now.

The artwork is pretty unique, since it features a wheel system which allows you to change the cover, right where the woman stands in the open door. There are four different pictures and four different text messages. Nice gimmick. Cobra Records didn't skimp on the cover.

In the next few weeks, Empowerment is going to do a split series with four other German bands. The first split 7" has already been released, and besides Empowerment it features Hamburg based band Krank. Musically speaking, these bands are on the opposite ends of the hardcore/punk spectrum. NYHC vs. classic punk sound. Good songs by both bands, although I favor Empowerment a little bit. Then again it's really hard to compare these bands since they play such different styles.