Upside Down Man are hailing from Calgary, Canada and this is their debut full length album with High End Denim Records! This little beauty contains ten songs. The music of Upside Down Man is in my opinion more modern version of skate punk/melodic hardcore punk with one leg standing in all those nineties old school Fat and Epitaph influences, but with other leg standing in modern technical skate punk that lots of fans of more technical approach will learn to love and appreciate. If I must compare it to some bands it would be a mixture of Pennywise’s anthemic melodies and catchy songwriting with Strung Out’s metallic technicality. This band provides more complex song structures, some tempo changes, chilling and great guitar hooks and solos and blistering musicianship that only makes you take your hat off. Usually, I am more of a fan of old school nineties influenced skate punk, but this one is enough technical to be modern and superb, also enough catchy to be appealing. Vocalist/guitarist Brook Hadden provides great voice, somehow calm and dramatic at the same time, while backing vocal harmonies do super job, all who read this zine know how important vocals and harmonies are to me when listening to music such as these. Lyrics are personal but you can read a lot of stuff between the lines and relate to them. My personal favorites on this record are ‘Don’t Care’ with that great galloping metallic part prior to solo, also ‘Diablo’ and ‘Chooses No Weapon’, but album as a whole is worth your listening pleasure if you love your skate punk technical yet anthemic and ultra melodic.

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