Nick Traina, Knowledge's vocalist, left Link 80 and joined this band. He unfortunately died a month later from an overdose, due to his mental disorder manic depression. The songs of this CD were his last things he did musically. The songs in
A Gift Before I Go are quite diverse. Some are punk, some ska, and some hardcore. Nick was obviously not alive when this CD was released, you can tell this by the name of the title. IF Nick hadn't died he probably would have done more songs for this CD and gifted us with more music.
Vocals - Nick Traina
Guitar - Eric Warner
Bass - Chuck Knowledge
Drums - Colin Delaney
If you're expecting this to be very similar to Link 80 (post-
The Struggle Continues), well, you were half right. Of course since Nick's voice was a big part of Link 80's sound so Knowledge sounds very similar, but they the songs on this album are different. Link 80 blended ska and punk together, and added bits of hardcore. Knowledge didn't mix the genres so much together as Link 80 did.
Basically this album (and band) can be divided into three seperate categories. First, hardcore. There are several hardcore songs on here, and they're quite good. I listen to maybe 20 hardcore bands tops (not including old school hardcore ie: Bad Brains, Minor Threat, etc.), so I don't know its history very well, but someone told me that this hardcore was ahead of it's time (1997).
The hardcore songs are: Against the Rest, Inikwity, Stomp out, and Still Standing. Some of those songs you can taste a little punk in it, which leads me to the next "category" of Knowledge, punk. Actually there's punk in nearly every song. However it's most prominent in Cynic and Brotherhood (which sounds a lot like a Cheap Sex song). Now as much as I love Knowledge, and I do, I'd have to admit their ska songs aren't that amazing. Good, but nowhere near amazing. One of them that stands out though is their cover of Unity, originally by Desmond Dekker. It's pretty similar to the original, but Nick adds a little punk flare to it and does a good job covering it. Other ska songs: Better Things, Don't Give up, and Clinton Youth.
If you're a big fan of Link 80 pick this up definitely. If you like any of the above stated genres (punk, hardcore, ska[punk]) then pick it up (haha no pun intended). If you want to get into any of these genres pick this album up. Uhhhhh only downside of the album is that it's too short. 4/5
