Sprainer released their debut seven song EP and these guys are hailing from Peterborough, UK. This little EP and songs on it contain everything I love about this music. It contains tight musicianship and mixture of catchy pop punk with harshness of melodic hardcore influences and also skate punk in many song structures. Lyrics are smartly written and deal with every day themes like loneliness, searching and striving for more, ethics, morality and knowing when to depart if necessary. Music is faster and uplifting, like late nineties and early 2000s pop punk/melodic punk influenced bands with great vocals, voice that stays in your mind and ear long time after listening to this little record. My personal favorites are: ‘Cut Thumbs’, ‘Tentacles’ and ‘I Hate My Job’. Good melodic record by good band.
Remy Verreault is a musician based in Quebec and this is his seventh release, this time with High End Denim Records. Remy has been in the scene playing in such heavy hitters as We Love Danger, Wrong Advice, and most recently, Mark & The Wolves, but he decided to do something different and this thirteen songs are here to prove that. Yes, this is nineties influenced melodic punk rock/hardcore with no complicated riffs or philosophy, just melancholic and melodic punk hardcore heading your way with mainly fast songs, some mid tempo punk anthems topped with Remy’s excellent bit higher than most vocalists voice that fits perfectly to the songs. Backing vocals and harmonies are perfect too! Lyrics are personal and deal with everyday themes that everyone of us can relate to and songs like ‘In Order To’, or ‘Little Prince’ are about to win you over for sure, but you will have to listen to this album and other Remy’s work to find your favorites. Mine are also ‘Pisses Me Off’ and ‘Strange Times’ and above all ‘Stay Strong’. Damn, that’s already half of the album. Great one indeed!
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.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 