Commitment Records is a straight edge hardcore label, based in The Netherlands.
The label was started in 1996, and over the years has released 7" records by bands like Vitamin X, Pointing Finger, Reaching Forward, Hoods Up, Fight For Change, One X More, Fairfight, Product X, GuidingLine, Oil, Infect, GuidingLine, The Miracle, The Silver Shine, The Age, Second Combat, When Seasons Change and more.
History
Commitment Records was started in July 1995 with two goals in mind: to be a means to distribute 7" records of small American and European labels and beginning Straight Edge bands in Europe and to release records of Straight Edge bands with a positive attitude.
The Straight Edge movement was at its height in the beginning of the Eighties (1980-1983) and a second boom took place at the end of the decade (1987-1989) with a lot of new bands, labels and fanzines. In the beginning of the Nineties the Straight Edge trend was over.
Later in the Nineties a new style of Straight Edge developed, with bands that were more militant than most of the bands of the '80's and with a music-style that became more and more influenced by metal. The attitude of a lot of these socalled 'new school Straight Edge hardcore'-bands was not positive at all: this was reflected in their lyrics (sometimes really apocalyptical), the artwork of the records (dark, with a lot of demons and images from the Middle-ages) and even in the dancing style (violent).
From 1995 on, some new young Straight Edge bands came up, both in the USA (Halfmast, Envy, Plagued With Rage) and Europe (Mainstrike, Rectify) that got their inspiration, both musically and lyrically, from the 80s bands. Inspired by this development Commitment Records was started.
Commitment Records wants to provide an opportunity for new or unknown bands, who combine the Straight Edge message with a positive attitude, to release (7") records. As a start (and this policy is still in force in 2007) Commitment Records is only doing 7"'s records. The 7" is the cheapest format to make (or buy) records, and that's the reason we think it needs to be supported.
Ideology
Commitment Records considers itself a Straight Edge label and will limit itself to releasing records by Straight Edge bands, at reasonable prices.
For the people involved in Commitment Records Straight Edge means more than just not drinking, not smoking and not using drugs. In our eyes these are just necessary conditions to be able to strife for the really important things: creating a society, based on mutual respect, without prejudice, hate and ignorance; working for a world without the big differences in welfare which exist nowadays, a world where humans, animals and the environment have priority, and not economic growth and monetary considerations.
There is no place for hardline attitudes, racism, sexism, homophobia, nationalism, satanism and machoism (including violent dancing !) in Straight Edge.
Releases up to now
In 1996 Commitment released its first record, a live-EP of Youth Of Today , with recordings made during their show in Amsterdam, in 1989. We released this 7" for three reasons. In the first place because we had a live-recording of Youth Of Today at our disposal, which perfectly captured the atmosphere existing in the European hardcore scene at the end of the Eighties, at a time when the Straight Edge scene in Holland, Belgium and Germany was at its peak. In the second place the ideology of the band Youth Of Today has a lot in common with the ideology from which Commitment Records was started: Straight Edge, positive thinking and awareness of the wrongs of this world. In the third place, by releasing a record of a very popular band, we were able to bring Commitment Records to the attention of a lot of people.
In 1997 Commitment Records organized a positive sXe-festival in Amsterdam, and as part of this festival, a double-7" was released with the 8 bands that played on the festival (among those By The Grace Of God from the USA, Mainstrike from Holland and Spawn from Germany). The festival was the first hardcore-show in Holland with a non-smoking policy and besides that, was a benefit for a refugee aid organisation. The festival was a big succes - including the bands, more than 200 people visited the festival.
Since the end of 1997, Commitment released 7"'s by a bunch of young sXe-bands from Holland and Belgium: Oil, Vitamin X, GuidingLine, Soberesponse, X-Men, One X More, Reaching Forward and Product X.
After a short break, Commitment Records released three new records in the Summer of 1999: the debut-7" of Kids Like Us from Norway and new 7"'s by Vitamin X from Amsterdam and One X More from Belgium.
In the autumn of 1999, these three releases were followed by two other releases: the "Hit The Line Hard"-compilation featuring four positive HxC/sXe-bands from Northern Carolina and Atlanta: Reinforce, Until Today, No Comply and One Way and the new 7" of Product X from The Netherlands.
The first release in the new Millenium was the debut-7" of Fairfight, positive sXe-HxC from Utrecht, The Netherlands. Around the same time, the re-release on The Return Of The X-Men compilation was also finally done - on one 7" now, featuring different songs of Oil and GuidingLine and without the Spawn-song. The record starts with an intro by Rob Pennington of By The Grace Of God. The layout was done by Robin of Oil, and features many photos taken on the festival.
At the end of the Summer of 2000, the world wide straight edge compilation, More Than The X On Our Hands, was released. This compilation, a box set with six 7"'s, contains 41 straight edge band from 41 different countries and a 52-page booklet with a short introduction on the history straight edge, a comment by Ian MacKaye on the start of straight edge, and lyrics, bands information, photos, etcetera. This compilation will also be put out on tape or CD or various other labels all over the world.
In April 2001 Cross Me, a German-France straight edge band, debuted with their first regular release on Commitment. Later that year, the debut-7" was released of Fight For Change, one of the many straight edge bands out of the active Portugese sXe scene.
In the first 2 years of the 2nd millenium, the number of releases on Commitment have not been as numerous as in the last 2 years of the 1st Millenium. But this will change in 2002. In March, the second 7" of Fairfight was released, and this was followed in June by the first South American band with a release of its own on Commitment: Infect from Brazil. This is also in other aspects an unique record: never before had a Commitment 7" so many songs (13). Besides, the Infect record is the first record that contains songs that already have been release before (in Brazil, to be precisely), and Infect is the first Commitment band with female members (after 5 years, it's about time...). In the second half of 2002 two more records were released: 7"'s of On A Solid Rock and Pointing Finger.
2003 gave Commitment one release: the debut-7" of North from Rotterdam.
The second half of 2004 brought two new releases: the compilation "Forever In Our Hearts", to celebrate the 25th release of Commitment, and 7" by The Age (formerly known as Second Age) from Poland.
In 2005, Commitment has released three records.
First, in the beginning of January, the debut-7" of The Miracle 7", was released. The Miracle is a fairly new band from the Milan area, but with people that have been around for a long time, playing in bands like Fumbles In Life and Shotgun Foundation. The 7" contains the three songs of the promo they recorded in the Summer of 2004, and three new songs, that they have been recorded in the autumn of the same year. Six songs of powerful and heavy old school hardcore, with lyrics that deal with scene related, personal and political issues.
Second, there was the third and, unfortunately, final 7" of the Portugese vegan straight edge band Fight For Change. Due to all kind of misfortunes, it took the band very long to finish the recording and mixing of the songs of this 7", but the final results are for sure worth the wait. Fight For Change got the opportunity to record in a professional studio, as one of their members was working there, and that led to by far the best produced the stuff the band recorded so far. The 7" contains seven songs (around 15 minutes of music!) of fast youthcrew hardcore, with lyrics that reflect on straight edge, the hardcore scene and the larger world in general. The record is a benefit for the Animal Liberation Front. The 8 page booklet contains explanations of the lyrics and reflections of the band on the state of the world, and especially the animal rights issue.
Third, at July the 30th, the debut-7" of The Silver Shine was released as Commitment 29. Although the members of The Silver Shine have their roots in the Hungarian hardcore scene (and are still an active part of it), this 7" is in fact the first non-hardcore Commitment release. The sound of this trio (vocals/guitar, upright bass and drums) can be described as a mixture of psychobilly and punkabilly, with some hardcore, country and punkrock influences thrown into the mix for good measure. The lyrics deal with the usual psychobilly stuff (you know, the same subjects that are handled in classic horror movies from the 1950s and 1960s), but also with the dangers of the addiction to drugs - which reflects the straight edge lifestyle of all members of the band. The record is a benefit for a local group that helps addicted people to give up their addiction and start a new life.
On October, 24, 2006, two new Commitment releases have seen the light of day.
First, the long awaited new record of Malaysian youthcrew straight edge veterans Second Combat. Six songs of old school straight edge hardcore, with an original twist.
Second, the debut 7" of When Seasons Change from Italy. When Seasons Change started in 2004 as Nothing To Hide and changed their name in 2005 to When Seasons Change. After two demo's (one as Nothing To Hide and one as When Seasons Change) their first official release is out: a six song EP on Commitment.
2007 was a very active year for Commitment, with 4 new releases.
The first was the debut 7" of Hamburg's positive straight edgers Hoods Up, that was released on March, 2nd, 2007 and presented
on the annual Light The Fuse fest in Hengelo, The Netherlands, one day later. The record sold out of it's initial pressing of 500 pieces in two months.
The second was the debut-7†of Up Rights, a straight edge band from Toulouse, France. Uprights is not exactly new on the scene, as they played their first show in October 1996, being formed that same year after the break-up of Conform Choice. Mainly inspired by the late 1990s wave of European straight edge bands, Up Rights play fast, energetic and melodic old school hardcore and couple it with a message of drugfree pride and positivity, while taking a stand against the evils of today’s hardcore scene, like violent attitudes, fashion slavery and MySpace addicts.
The third was the debut-7" of Turn The Tide. Turn The Tide started out as a project in October 2006, when people involved in several other Finish hardcore bands, decided it was time for a straight edge band playing traditional hardcore in Finland again, as such a band had been lacking since the breakup of On A Solid Rock. Although Turn The Tide take the inspiration for their sound clearly from the classic youthcrew bands, their sound also contains elements of melodic punkrock and even classic rock, with raw production adding an extra sting. Shouted by a voice that sometimes brings Ian MacKaye to mind, the lyrics on their debut-7†are reflections of everyday life and relations with other people: greed, love, self-confidence and personal choices and growth.
The fourth, released just before Christmas, is the debut-7" Resolve, a five-piece straight edge band from the St. Louis, MO-area, that plays pure late 1980s youthcrew hardcore, in the classic style that bands like Youth Of Today and Turning Point made big. The songs are fast, energetic full of catchy singalongs and deal with life from a positive perspective. Lyrics about the meat industry, the power of oil corporations in the USA, intelligent design, but also about being different and making a positive change, shows Resolve that the band has some importants thoughts to share.
2008 will bring new releases of Birds Of A Feather (five song 7"), Take Control (6 song 7") and F.P.O. (6 song 7").
