There is a location east of Los Angeles, quite a ways, known as the Inland Empire. There was a time during the late 1990s and 2000s when a surge of straightedge and hardcore bands started to come through and begin to get noticed on a significant scale. It wasn’t just straightedge, however, it was also Christian bands that began to get a great deal of focus, including No Innocent Victim, As I Lay Dying, Dodgin Bullets, Cast in Stone, Torn in Two, and many others. In the mix of those bands was a band with dual singers called Point of Recognition. They would release their debut record, “The Admiration of a Son,” on Rescue Records in 1999 and hit the ground running.
The first significant thing you’ll notice about “The Admiration of a Son” is the production values. It’s an independent recording, and while Rescue Records put it out, you can tell that the budget wasn’t very high. That doesn’t matter regarding hardcore, metalcore, or even punk, and you can easily push it to the side. Once you put that aside, you get to the crux of the record: an up-and-down push through hardcore and metallic riffs.
The metalcore sound of “The Admiration of a Son” comes through with the riffs on every track, with sing-along choruses breaking up the screams from the dual singers. You’ll find a balancing act at play here, where neither one gets over the other, and while they sound similar, you can tell one has a deeper reach. Lyrically, this is an assault; it’s a tackling record of Christian themes, which may turn some off. However, if you look past that, you’ll find that “The Admiration of a Son” is a good overall example of the Southern California hardcore, metalcore sound that was alive and well in 1999 and through the 2000s. The record holds up well but is an acquired taste.
You owe it to yourself to stream or buy this masterpiece here.
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