If school didn’t already bang the point home, the older you get you start to realize that for better or worse history tends to repeat itself. Just ask Albany’s Born Low, who with their debut full-length “Reincarnage” on Reaper Records have instantly revived a long-lost strain of early-90’s metallic NYHC. Just don’t tell them about Toronto’s No Warning, who with their cult sophomore record for Bridge 9 “Ill Blood,” pre-empted Born Low by a good seven years in resurrecting this somehow familiar east coast, meat-and-potatoes brand of hardcore. But let that be merely another example of history repeating itself. No Warning are no longer. And Born Low, who in their ranks boast ex-members of such influential Albany acts One King Down, Another Victim, The Promise, Burning Bridges, Lariat, and Once and For All, will soon prove with “Reincarnage” that not only do these veterans hunger for another go at the crown, they have all the venom and chops of a “Set It Off” or “Demonstrating My Style”-era Madball to propel that ambition. This ushers in the age-old debate of whether bands deriving from upstate or outskirts can claim city status and affiliation. While Born Low certainly aren’t pretending to be from the city, they can rightfully claim stake to whatever part of New York they please, because nothing this bouncy and crushing has come out of the city in years, insofar as early-90’s NYHC goes; the stem cell of the dominant sound in tough, mosh-oriented hardcore for the past twenty years. It doesn’t hurt that “Reincarnage” was recorded by revered producer Dean Baltulonis, who made his name over the past two decades laying to tape classic east coast blueprint releases from Madball, No Warning, Sick Of It All, Hope Conspiracy, American Nightmare, Nerve Gas Tragedy, and more. With the wealth of NYHC-influenced bands that have spawned from the new scene, notably Reign Supreme, Cruel Hand, Forfeit, Violation, Trapped Under Ice, Bad Seed, Bitter End, and Mother Of Mercy, it’s normal that among these hardworking bands some simply hit the mark more precisely than others. Seemingly out of nowhere has arrived Born Low who with “Reincarnage” supersede nearly all of the above acts with one of the most convincing slabs of street-style, aggressive hardcore since “Ill Blood.” Even one of the new scene’s more colorful frontmen, Justice Tripp from Born Low labelmates Trapped Under Ice, drops some scathing guest vocals on “World On Its Back,” an endorsement sure to turn any skeptics into believers. Formerly It’s Alive under which they released the critically-acclaimed “Only Death Will Deliver” demo, the renamed and reinvigorated Born Low boast the same rhythm section of Derrick VanWie and Bill Scoville that pummeled hardcore kids with two of the most pivotal straight-edge hardcore records of the late-90’s: One King Down’s “Bloodlust Revenge,” and “God Loves, Man Kills.” Born Low’s rhythm section is, in fact, one of the most cohesive and dexterous since Zowie/Tony Fontão helped turn the punky New York sound into a precise and lethal thrash attack on Leeway’s “Born To Expire,” Craig Setari/Will Shepler further mated the then-new metallic NYHC sound with traditional hardcore, Harley Flanagan/Pete Hines layed down the rumbling foundation for “Best Wishes,” Craig Setari/Armand Madji established the frenetic Sick Of It All battering ram, and Hoya/Will Shepler started the Madball revolution. Further emphasizing Born Low's do-it-yourself hardcore ethic, Derrick VanWie executed the poignant and slick digipack layout for "Reincarnage," not to mention having designed and printed shirts and jerseys for legendary Troy, NY act Stigmata dating back many years. The members of Born Low are deeply woven into the fabric of New York's once-dominant upstate scene, and "Reincarnage" is the cue that these guys are itching to break out and let the world know what they've been up to in recent years.