Somebody once told me that love without commitment wasn’t really love, it was just infatuation driven by endorphins. And she was almost certainly right, as even though I’ve never been able to commit to being Straight Edge, I’ve had a lifelong infatuation with the music that lies at the heart of the SxEx scene. While I dig the message, the resolute adherence to the guiding principles that the scene was built upon and the camaraderie of SxEx Hardcore, what really makes my juices flow and makes me want to bust out all sorts of terrible old man pit moves is the energy, speed, passion and precision that the music is fuelled by.

I mean, where do I even begin with xSxEx Hardcore? There’s the breakdowns. A good breakdown makes me go all weak at the knees and is even better than that first cup of coffee in the morning. If my knees start buckling, that means the breakdown has nearly snapped the needle off on the Cappo-o-meter and don’t even get me started on sing-a-longs. If a band busts out a sing-a-long that I can get behind, especially if it comes in the middle of the breakdown, then I’m done and at that moment, at that peak of Hardcore ecstasy, it doesn’t matter what other dreams or life goals I may have , at that moment I can die happy. And Clear Sight has all of those things in abundance. All the things that have fuelled my long time love affair with Straight Edge Hardcore are present and correct and fill every groove of Drug Control’s latest EP.

Oh sure, I could tell you about how Drug Control are channelling the original spirit of Side By Side and Youth of Today and combining it with the focus and energy of Mouthpiece and how no song on here sticks around for long enough to even think about outstaying it’s welcome, and how each tune on Clear Sight punches you straight in the heart and makes you snap to attention. Sure I could tell you all that, but that’s not what’s important about Drug Control.  No sir and no ma’am, what’s important about Drug Control is that they know how to write the kind of songs that make me go wobbly at the knees, sing-a-long while pretending that I know all the words and make a fool of myself in the pit. Which is exactly what great Hardcore should do. Who needs love when you’ve got infatuation… Tim Cundle