Time for a bit of melodic hardcore to grace the pages of this webzine. Fucked Up are hailing from Ontario, Canada and they recently released their new album containing ten songs. Although the name already says it, this is hardcore par excellence. Fucked Up play their vision of melodic hardcore punk with many stop and go change of tempo, modern hooks and melodies but remaining with both feet solid in punk rock roots rather than metallic hardcore that more and more takes over the scene these days. This vision of hardcore is harsh in vocals, but also melodic and up tempo and sometimes made me fell good and filled me with energy listening to this one. Songs like ‘I Think I Might Be Weird’, ‘Nothing’s Immortal’ or ‘One Day’ won me over with their humor, real life lyrics to which you can relate, auto irony of sorts and above all great songwriting. This is a good band and good record.
The Lackeys are hailing from Ottawa, Canada and this is their brand new e.p. containing five songs. These guys play nice melodic punk with some fast excursions into more melodic hardcore punk side of things. Vocals and backing harmonies are superb melodies, also guitars and great songwriting. There is not much to say about this one, except that it is excellent and I would love to listen to a full length somewhere in future. Lyrics deal with anxiety, breakups, fear, uncertainty, inner battles and love, also about taking a dump with a cell phone in hand haha which many of us do. I am sure these guys also sound fantastic live, maybe we will see them in Europe one day. Till the full length album, go listen to this one and show some love for The Lackeys.
Canada has such a great punk rock scene and Another Joe are part of that scene. After long 23 years they finally released their full length record with People of Punk Rock Records. This is a record containing 8 songs. This is not your all out war fast skate punk/hardcore, no. This is pure punk rock, played tight, harsh and with conviction. Songs are mid tempo, influenced by old school punk bands from England, but more technical and also influence of American school of punk rock can be heard in song structures. There is rawness that many today’s punk bands lack, but there are also subtle or less subtle melodies getting through the guitar riffs and some almost gentle backing vocals like in my personal favorite ‘Freak’. Maybe it is only me, but I can also hear a lots of garage punk energy in there, not only in the mentioned song, but through the album as a whole. Songs that I must also mention as my highlights are ‘Sound Advice’ and ‘T-Bird Tattoo’.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 