There is an explosion of musical thunder as Boston's Slapshot take the stage pile driving into their ominously building opener, "Back On The Map". Guitarist Steve Risteen kicks in a powerful assault of cascading chunks as while bass player Jon Anastas [ex DYS] assaults his bass with sheer brutality combined with a ton of muscle overdrive all backed by Mark McKay's frantic, though on-key drumming. Enter the snarl of lead singer Choke [ex Negative FX/Last Rights], who bursts on stage, sawed-off hockey stick in his hand. Those up front lean back as the wooden length seemingly threatens to strike without warning as its master sings, spits and bellows his lyrics with an unnatural force... The town is Boston, Massachusetts, home of such greats as SSD, DYS, Jerry's Kids and a host of others, most of whom either called it quits or have lost their initial intensity. Slapshot have different ideas.

"We're not a Hardcore band in the sense Siege or 7 Seconds are Hardcore," says Choke.

"Definitely, " injects Mark, "We're Hardcore because we play hard but we aren't the typical thrash-o-matic type of band either. We want to do are own thing and maybe start another chapter in the Boston history."

At a time when people have become either disenchanted or disappointed with the direction of Boston bands within the past two years, Slapshot offer a return to positive ideals and straight thinking. According to Steve, "We want to bring back the ideals of what Boston was initially about. For example, we're all Straight Edge and that makes itself apparent in the way we are on stage and in our own lives."

"But we're not a Straight Edge band in the way that we're going to come to your town with X's on our hands and knock beers out people's hands," says Jon. "We're not a reaction to anything. Choke takes Kung-Fu, I spend many hours in the gym each week getting massive, we play hockey and I guess you could call us a jock band nut we're not even that. We play the type of music that we want to play and follow our own rules rather that worrying about the expectations other people have for us."

"I'm not to keen on bringing back the old feel of Boston," says Choke, "That's gone and you can't bring that back, that feeling. When the same people aren't there I don't think you could ever recapture the idea of any kind of "crew". Still, there are the newer kids and they can feel a sense of pride in their city."

Formed during the fall of 1985, Slapshot entered into a long period of practicing and songwriting during which the band found its own unique sound combining elements of Last Rights, The Clash, Red Alert and a host of others as diverse as Skrewdriver and Motley Crue. "We have a varied sound," says Anastas, "and to me, the most disgusting turns of events in Hardcore were when people started having expectations about bands and a number of groups and organizations really fostered that way of thinking. They closed people's minds and only defined a small group of bands as "correct". That's wrong. People should be able to go out and listen to whatever they want and for that matter, do whatever they want without limitations."

"I guess you could call us an American Oi band", says Choke, "and although we're certainly not English sounding in any way, there are a lot of sing-along and a lot of melody to what we do. I don't think there's any other band like us and if I was out on the floor, I'd be going nuts for the stuff we do."

"We have a lot more melody than the average American Hardcore band," injects Anastas, "Bands seem to have gone in two directions. The first is simply going for a total rock sound and the second is a really atonal and abrasive sound. There's a lot of melody to what we do."

"Finally, Slapshot makes a standing challenge to bands all over the US and abroad to games street hockey. "Like I said," concludes Anastas, "you could call us a jock band."