Agastopia are hailing from Bulgaria and this is their new release containing nine songs. The music on this album is varied and if I must describe it would be melodic hardcore punk with some groove parts and almost alternative indie rock parts but enough harsh to keep your hardcore heart beating for listening the music of Agastopia. Like grunge influences meet hardcore punk and skate punk. Lyrics are personal and deal with death, facing your inner demons. aggression, being empty inside, depression, jealousy, suicide and other themes from very personal angle of being. There are couple of faster more straightforward punk songs like excellent ‘Dead’. Vocals vary from angry shouting to more melodic clean singing and fit just perfectly to the songs along with backing vocals. My personal favorites are ‘Dead’, ‘Terrified’ and ‘Just Do It’. This is not your straightforward hardcore record but it is a great music if you open your mind and ears to a bit different music style and quite original if I can admit.
Not much is known about Merit Maker. These guys are hailing from Philadelphia and they play punk rock. This record contains ten songs of fast melodic hardcore punk, bringing back the nineties hardcore punk melodycore vision to this century. The songs are mainly fast, some of them leaning more into hardcore side of things, being not so much melodic but harsher, like for example ‘False Starts’. There is an occasional melancholic melody and atmosphere that goes through the songs like thread that binds them all together, but maybe it is only me that hears such stuff on this album. Bassist/vocalist Joe Stanton’s voice is just made for music like this one. The guy does not have your typical melodic voice but he can transform it also to ultra melodic like in Ramonescore influenced ‘Look Back’ which reminded me of Teenage Bottlerocket a little bit, that is good since TB is one of my favorite bands ever in the genre, not saying Merit Maker copied anyone, quite the contrary. Besides melancholy, I like some kind of untamed and wild punk rock energy that goes through this album and connects all the songs into one whole and makes this good record. My other personal highlights: ‘Sparks Ignite’, ‘Falling Out’, ‘Hang Ups’.
Strike Twelve are punk rock band from Southern California and this is their full length album containing 14 songs of nineties influenced melodic punk/skate punk and if I must compare it to some other band it would be Pennywise, but more melodic than Pennywise. Vocals are great so melodic and sweet but backing vocal harmonies are superb too, just check out ‘Brother’, one of my personal highlights on this record. There are some reggae influences in that song and they fit perfectly to the song. This is more nineties influenced skate punk with less philosophy yet at the same time technical, fast and having also pure mid tempo punk rock songs, wicked bass solo and this all would be nothing without great musicianship. Other songs I must mention as my highlights would be ‘Not a Phase’, ‘Baseball Bat’, ‘Isn’t the Same’. I listened this album couple of times in a row, so it was really hard for me to stand out some favorite songs because album as a whole is one big hit and it will melt your face off with melodic punk.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 