Sun City Skins - Viejo Orgullo, Nueva Gloria (Vinyl 4 Bootboys Records - 2014)

Alright boys and girls, let's head back to the other side of the ocean. But this time (and for once) not to the USA. We'll go a little further south, to Mexico and the city of Hermosillo, and we'll go loco with the local band, Sun City Skins.
First I have to say that it's probably the only record of a band coming from Mexico that I own. I own and have listened to many other latin american bands (mainly from Argentina, Chile or Brazil), I had heard about the mexican scene before (especially when the italian band Asociale went there to play, in 2010 if I remember well ?), but this is, in the end, a pretty new scene to me.
Back to the band itself, Sun City Skins are a three-piece band coming from the city of Hermosillo, as I said before, and started to play in 2008, but that's actually their very first release. They play some kind of melodic up-tempo Oi!, with a lot of nice rock'n'roll-ish guitars, powerful vocals (in spanish, of course) and a lot of gang choirs. You could think that these guys would sound more "american" (by that I mean hardcore-influenced Oi!) given the geographic proximity with the USA, but to me they sound pretty European, you can clearly make a connection between their sound and bands like Decibelios, Zakarrak, Ultimo Asalto or in a greater extent, 80's/90's european Oi! influences.

Here you go with a sampler of what that record has to offer

On this EP the band offers us an intro plus three songs, "Tu Realidad", "La Vieja Escuela" and "Frente in Alto", dealing with the pride of being a skinhead, the way of life, etc... Nothing revolutionary but all in all in nicely written and really well played.
The artwork of this record is kind of... special in my opinion, I'm not a big fan of it. But never judge a book by its cover, as they say, and especially for this record you shouldn't, because you would be missing a great band. So, back to the thing, it's a gatefold cover, with, inside, the lyrics, band photos and a thanklist. 300 hundred copies were released (100 in black and 200 in gold, the golden version being particularly nice according to me).
If you don't want to miss a great band, then you should give Sun City Skins a try, I'm sure you will like it, I was very surprised by these three songs, really good ! I hope I will have the occasion to hear more things from them, and actually I will because I saw that the would be releasing a split EP with the great italian band F.A.V.L. soon. That's good news !