In April of this year we reviewed the debut full-length of the Italian deathcore band Stigma (click here). Now, a half year later, we received another debut album from Stigma. This time we’re dealing with the solo record of “The Godfather of Hardcore” Vinny Stigma though. Besides running New York Hardcore Tattoos in NYC’s Lower East Side and playing guitar with his buddies from Agnostic Front and Madball, Stigma also set up this self-named modern punk rock band featuring Mika Gallo (Agnostic Front) on bass, while Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed) was found as a producer for the album New York Blood.

The first remarkable thing is that Vinny doesn’t touch a guitar on this record. The only thing he does is handling the vocals and although it is a bit ill at ease in the beginning, he does a great job. Also the music on New York Blood isn’t really comparable to Agnostic Front’s hardcore. Although you’ll hear some little influences, the biggest part of Stigma’s music is just catchy street punk. Especially the last songs on the album, ‘We’re Not Alone’ and ’15 Pints’ respectively, show some resemblance to that typical Dropkick Murphys sound.

After just a couple of spins I caught myself already singing along with the choruses. From the more serious, slower songs to the beer drinking anthems: it’s good to hear Stigma isn’t tired of making music yet, ‘cause he’s definitely good at it. New York Blood has become a very decent release and although I hope they first release a new Agnostic Front record, I’m looking forward to Stigma’s second release.