Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
It’s been a long time since I’ve heard All I Have. The band’s last release was a split with End These Days and before that was ‘Busan Beach Blues‘ in 2014. Released in October 2018, ‘The New Path‘ doesn’t differ from the band’s other songs. It’s still in-your-face hardcore representing the southern part of South Korea. What this EP does well is prove that Korean punk and hardcore isn’t dead, just hidden.
‘The New Path’ is favors slower tempos, more aggression, and lots of distortion. It’s not trying to reinterpret the genre or do anything radically different, it’s capturing a moment in time of All I Have and the journey that the band is on. It feels like punk and hardcore remains as the real independent music in South Korea because there are a lot of bands, but many of them don’t record or release official releases. All I Have are fortunate to have the ability to share their music and ‘The New Path’ is a great listen for these genre fans.
Even though the songs all follow a similar arrangement, there are unique aspects to each song. “Born with Fortitude” attacks your ears with its guitar riffs and drumming. The slower tempo lets you digest each verse and become enveloped with each note. “Against Supremacy” is my favorite song, as the drumming is addictive and provides a lot of structure to barely confine the energy the band is putting out. I can say that if you didn’t like hardcore before, All I Have aren’t going to change your mind. They swim within the genre and become ambassadors.
It’s been a long time since I heard anything from All I Have, so I didn’t know if the band had broken up or went on hiatus. But I’m happy that the band was able to release something new because punk is still my favorite genre and finding new releases out of Korea is always exciting.
