Retrospect can be a confronting exercise in personal evaluation – the best of our best and worst of our worst. When considered honestly, it acknowledges this antagonism activating regret, indifference or positive progression. If we are privileged to have the unwavering scaffolds of a decade-long friendship in tow, this retrospective static could result in the modest acceptance of mistakes, making survival a potent possibility and providing a brash instrument for song writing. Call it a pie-in-the-sky ideal of hardcore, but for Pete Abordi and Pete Bursky of Sydney’s No Apologies, it holds true.

Formed in the winter of 2005, No Apologies emerged from the split of Last Nerve, the band frequently credited with reigniting hardcore in Sydney. This inopportune split left Abordi with a hell of a lot more to say. At a time where he was wrestling with twenty-something retrospect, he needed a productive, honest outlet. The outlet was inevitably the one he knew best – hardcore.

No Apologies’ new album, aptly titled Survival, sustains the Abordi-Bursky friendship / partnership. While Bursky was not an official original member, his friendship with Abordi meant a steady creative involvement. Having played and written music together for ten years (Restraint, Last Nerve and now No Apologies), this shared history has enabled them to write the album they’ve always wanted to. Survival is it. With Bursky now an official band member, both have been able to draw on all musical influences and take advantage of the lessons retrospect has delivered. Survival is a true expression of bittersweet survival - in and of a hardcore scene, a friendship and as individuals despite the best and worst of history.

Survival introduces the song writing assistance of good friend of the band, Todd Jones (Carry On, Terror, Betrayed, Internal Affairs, Snake Eyes). This is a testament not only to the invisibility of geographic boundaries in contemporary hardcore but to the firm handshake of shared experience. This handshake is offered to anyone who listens to Survival as life lessons are a common bond of lived experience.