Downway/Belvedere

Straight outta Calgary comes this split disc from two of Cowtown's premier punk practitioners. The first five songs are from the more metallic of the two bands, Downway. Thin production hampers their contribution by not giving the material the full-throttle punch it needs to come through. The same fate does not befall Belvedere’s five songs that were recorded at the legendary Inner Ear Studio in Washington with Minor Threat alums Brian Baker and Steve Hansgen producing and Don Zientara engineering. The result is a dry, tight-sounding set of music that gives us an idea of what Dag Nasty might sound like if they tried writing songs with Edmonton prog-core champions Choke.