Chronic Reflux are hailing from Florida and this is their new EP containing 6 songs. ‘I’m Tired’, – instrumental showcase of band’s tight musicianship with nice guitar solos and weird melody that stays in your ear. ‘The Runner and The Chaser’ is a melodic punk rock song with catchy guitar melody and impressive lyrics about burning bridges between something you chase and something you are, at least I understood it that way. Vocals are great, clean and very articulate and all song brings kind melancholy, especially guitar solo, making it one of my personal favorites on this record. ‘The Well Adjusted Cannot Be Trusted’ is mid tempo punk rock song that sounds more aggressive and angry, especially in the vocal lines, bordering between angry screaming, clean singing and sad, I love how song turns into fast hardcore punk in the end. ‘Feels The Same’ continues in angry direction with stop and go, weird and eerie melody and also theme about repetition and boredom. ‘There Is No Future’ takes us back into more pop punk and emo influenced waters and gentle melody haunts you while listening to the song. ‘Kissing Me’ is a garage demo version but still continues in that lovely pop punk direction and I am eager to wait for full length one day, or more EP’s.
Now, this is nice. For the start of 2023 TOO LOUD Records came out with this nice split release. This is a split record by FanKaz from Italy and Brazilian Out in Style. The record featured six songs, three from each band and it is an interesting one because it kind of shows and presents difference between two approaches to melodic punk, or call it melodic hardcore punk, skate punk anyway. FanKaz are more modern hardcore and technical skate punk, played tightly as well oiled machine with many song parts, stop and go, breakdowns and of course fast parts with melodic but also more hardcore screamed oriented vocals. On the other hand, Out in Style play that simple, no philosophy old school version of nineties influenced skate/melodic punk with some pop punk thrown in here and there and they remind me of all those great bands to whose music I grew up to. Lyrics are personal, but also hold some tone of melancholy and hope at least I see it that way. Both bands are great, but Out in Style are more to my taste. But only little. This one is worth your grabbing if you like melodic hardcore punk.
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.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 