Teenage Bottlerocket released their long awaited new full length album and it contains 14 songs of their recognizable pop punk mixed with Ramones like fast songs full of energy and melody, calling them purveyors of so called Ramonescore. Ray’s and Kody’s dual vocals are sounding better than ever creating superb melodies and awesome harmonies. Lyrics as usual deal with sci fi, horror, love and emotions plus humor. My personal favorites are faster songs like High Speed Yoga, also Friend Named Fly, Post Mortem Depression but there are also mid tempo more introspective emotional punk rock songs like True To You and She’s The Shit. Fans of this band will not be disappointed, this is way better album than the last one in my humble opinion, with more catchy and memorable songs. I really enjoyed listening to this excellent album.
Coltaine are hailing from Karlsruhe. Germany and they have been in the scene since 2022. This is their brand new sixth full length opus and it contains 9 songs. Coltaine is a name taken from Steven Erikson’s fantasy book series Malazan Book Of The Fallen. Music of Coltaine is a mixture of mainly post metal and post rock with doom and sludge metal influences. Lyrics deal mainly with themes like nature, life, death but also kind of fantasy in my humble opinion. Some of the songs get quite long but they are in no way boring. What I love about this record is eerie voice and melodies of vocalist Julia Frasch who is a really talented singer ranging from growls to more etherial gentle voice. If I must compare it to some bands it would be early The Gathering but without death metal singing. My personal favorites on this one are Above The Burning Sand and also Brandung. This is nice atmospheric music opus and have a listen. 8,5/10
Canadian punkrockers Curbside are back with their new opus, first one after long 13 years. If you thought that band got mellow or soft in those years you are so wrong. This is a masterpiece in fast melodic hardcore punk coupled with 90s influenced skatepunk and emotions pouring all over. There are 14 songs on this record and they all rock! We are talking about fast drumming, great guitar work and riffs that deliver superb melodies. Vocals are very important in this kind of music, I can asure you that singing parts are awesome, when you add to it fantastic backing vocal harmonies you get something close to perfect. If I must mention some of my favorites on this record, they change all the time, but here are three of them: The Devil Wears Vans, Handshakes,Missed Takes and A Lifetime To Outgrow, but as I said, my favorites change all the time. I must also add a great cover of SNFU’s hit Painful Reminder done in fast version and being a perfect blend of fast and slower parts. Lyrics on this record are somehow personal but I can relate to them and that is very important to me while listening to the music. So, this is one of the best melodic hardcore punk records this year. 10/10
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 