One of the greatest hardcore collections of all time!

Artist: Bold
Album: The Search: 1985-1989
Label: Revelation
Tracks: 32
Reviewed By: Chaz

Bold: One of the, if not the greatest hardcore band of all time. It's hard to write anything less than that. They are one of the most dynamic and influential hardcore bands of all time. They started on humble grounds while members were just old enough to escape that horrible time of puberty. At their start, they drew their inspirational from bands like Minor Threat, DYS and SS Decontrol. They also found friends in NYC with other bands like Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits and Judge. They were at the forefront of the Spirit Of '88 hardcore explosion. They started off as Crippled Youth and released an 7" EP on New Beginning Records in 1986 and then changed their name to Bold. In 1988, they released one of the greatest straight edge albums, Speak Out on Ray Cappo's (Youth of Today, Shelter, Better Than A Thousand) Revelation Records. In 1989, they recruited all-star hardcore guitar legend, Tom Capone (Shelter, Beyond, Quicksand, Handsome), to join the band. The addition of Tom Capone added a more melodic and complex sound to the band. They recorded a self titled 7" for Revelation and it was their best material but also seemed to be the last call for the band. Two years later, the 7" was re-released with extra tracks and was made into a CD/LP called Looking Back and it is still regarded today as one of the best hardcore albums of all time.

Since their split 1989, the band members have gone onto other bands such as Running Like Thieves, Into Another, Quicksand, Shelter, Handsome and One Sided War. The band reunited in 2005, with John "Porcell" Porcelly (Project X, Youth of Today, Shelter, Never Surrender, Judge and Gorilla Biscuits) on second guitar and have since been touring and working on new material. Now that the history lesson is over, let me talk about the album.

It is amazing. The Search starts with track 1-7 Bold's Looking Back album (1991). Track 8 is from The Way It Is comp (1988). Tracks 9-20 is from the straight edge masterpiece Speak Out (1988). Track 21 is from the Together comp (1987) and track 22 was previously unreleased. Tracks 23-32 are from the days of Crippled Youth and their EP Join The Fight (1986). It's really amazing and some times comical to see this band grow up...but backwards.

The Search is one of the greatest hardcore albums ever. How can it not be? It contains two of the greatest hardcore albums of all time. Every hardcore fan needs to own this. It goes up their with Insted - Proud Youth: 1986-1991 and Judge - What It Meant: The Complete Discography as MUST HAVE hardcore retrospectives. Four stars. I wish I could give five but four is the limit. Looking Back is the greatest hardcore song ever written.