For some reason the Europeans took the punk-rock torch and ran with it like a bat out of hell. The decline of Californian skate-punk in the new millennium has bothered me, of course – with the overtaking of fashion-oriented and rock + scream hybrids of bands that are currently rocking the Warped Tour stages (Remember Warped ’98?) I am left to hunt the small, cobbled streets of our European brothers for my punk fix.

Enter our friends at Eternalis Records – A small French outfit that specifically releases really good, modern punk/hardcore in small numbers. Their average pressing is around 500 examples, but we are sure glad Quentin takes the time to release these albums.

The first band in this series of 3 reviews is Baxter. Baxter are pretty much Comeback Kid steeped in melody – The musicianship is similar in that they both share the same furious, beating drums but the vocals are less intense in a characteristic French accent.

Baccara is 8 tracks of very tight and very well executed melodic-hardcore – They never give up, each song is as intense and exciting as the last and the album, although short, is quite an accomplishment.

I hope they come stateside and can hook up a tour with bands like Set Your Goals, Comeback Kid, Sinking Ships etc.