The first time I heard from Heideroosjes (pronounced as hi-duh-rose-yes) was when I was a boy from thirteen or fourteen years old. The band just released their album Fifi, their breakthrough album for the Netherlands and Belgium. I went to a lot of Heideroosjes shows in that time; stage diving and partying with the band together on stage. Great times I had back then. After a while I lost my interest in the band and stopped following them.
A few years ago Heideroosjes played at a festival in my hometown and I noticed that the band has grown and was more a professional oiled machine then a partying punk band, very pity but the show was very good.

Nowadays Heideroosjes are the most popular and most hard working punk band from the Benelux. The band always sings in Dutch and English on their albums, they also did on studio album number eight; simply called The Chapter Eight The Golden State.
The sound from these Dutch punkers has really grown throughout the years. In the beginning it was just a simple punk band who loved to play music. Now it’s a band that sings about political stuff and sounds (again) as an oiled machine.

Heideroosjes recorded this album together with producer Cameron Webb; this guy is also famous for his work with Ignite, Limp Bizkit and Motörhead. Lemmy from Motörhead and Zoli Teglas from Ignite are also featuring on this record. For the input from Lemmy on the song ‘My Funeral’ I had to listen it a few times, I really didn’t hear it at first.
The album is furthermore full of typical Heideroosjes songs, that means punk with sometimes hardcore influences and a party vibe.
The most striking on this album is the song ‘Ik Ben Niet Bang’ (‘I’m Not Afraid’). The song is slow and sounds more like a ballad then a punk song. The song doesn’t fit in the concept of the whole album. The lyrics are more for a child who’s going to high school for the first time; not for a very cool punker who plays in dirty pubs.

Just like every Pennywise album this new Heideroosjes effort has no new things. But as always it’s an easy listening and very nice album.