By Alex Kantarelis

The 508 area has a new straight-edge band to keep an eye out for ~ The Hot Boiz. Based in the Blackstone Valley area, they are playing a style of music that some call revivalist, while others call it old school. That’s understandable, considering the group’s sound is similar to the old Revelation Records bands from the late ’80s like Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today. Their songs are a little more on the punk side than what you might be used to from the hardcore scene today. In other words, less chugga-chugga beatdown parts that have started to dilute the music and more lightning-fast drums with guitar riffs that sound like they came straight from ’88.

The band got its start earlier this year when four friends got together to make music unlike what they were used to hearing.

“Everything out of our area ~ and out of Massachusetts, in general ~ is really heavy, and there wasn’t a lot of this kind of hardcore going around anymore, so instead of being pissed off about it, we just did something about it instead,” bassist Doug Ostroskey said.

The result was a real old school-sounding band and a demo so raw that it might have been recorded at Chung King Studios back in the late ’80s. The guys in the band range in age from 17-20, and all are straight edge and love hardcore. While New York dominated the straight-edge scene in the ’80s, it was the late ’90s and early 2000s that saw Boston as the biggest straight-edge city, and The Hot Boiz were always big fans, drawing influence from legendary Boston straight-edge bands Mental and Righteous Jams, just as much as the New York bands that so influenced the scene.

After playing a few shows and releasing a demo for free on its Bandcamp page, the band found itself on Vol. 3 of the Massachusetts is a Coffin compilation that came out in the summer, alongside Massachusetts bands like Foxfires, Test of Time, Streetsweeper and Caught in a Crowd.

The Hot Boiz have continued playing shows all over the state and have now set their sights on a follow up to the demo, a six-song cassette that they will self-record and self-release under their new label. Before recording starts, they will be releasing a zine this month.

As for their name, Ostroskey said, “I feel like a lot of these bands take themselves too seriously and have these one-word, ambiguous, tough-guy names. That doesn’t really fit us.”

It’s good to know they don’t take themselves too seriously. Check them out if you are a real fan of hardcore music.

Check out the Massachusetts is a Coffin compilation for free at massachusettsisacoffin.com. Check out the Hot Boiz demo for free at thehotboiz.bandcamp.com.