And just like that, in a flurry of rabid kick drums, pounding bass, manic riffing and super-charged Inside Out meets 59 Times the Pain style vocals, the gut punch Hardcore of Portugal’s Backflip has dragged me straight into the new-fangled twenty first century. Bridging the gap between, and treading similar territory to, Turnstile and Higher Power and with a smattering of early Jane’s Addiction and Underdog bubbling under the surface, The Brainstorm Vol. 2 is a fevered, melody driven, frantic new wave Hardcore record that’s as much about groove, hooks and power as it is ferocity and anger. And it’s all kinds of fun to listen to and sing-a-long with. Backflip will make you want to do all those dance moves that you like to do when you’re alone and you think no-one is watching.  It’s true, they really will. Which is why, after they made me forget that I was a middle aged HC kid with fucked knees and busted up right shoulder, I spent the last hour throwing myself around like a twenty something made out of elastic while The Brainstorm Vol. 2 was cranked up high. And it’s almost certainly why I’m now sitting in the office chair, whimpering and whining in pain, chugging back paracetamol and trying to rub Deep Heat into places that it was probably never meant to be rubbed into.  And if given the chance (meaning in about two hours from now), I’ll do it all over again. Yeah, these guys really are that good… Tim Cundle