The hit machines of Beyond The Lamplight, born out of the former Americana/Punk band Larry And His Flask, release their new single ‘Hiding In Plain Sight’ today.
‘Hiding in Plain Sight’ was inspired by the time during the Covid Pandemic. Kind of an ode to a time of uncertainty and confusion. We all felt caged and confined, not knowing what the next day would bring. And also to the psychological toll something like that takes on you, and trying to deal with the thoughts and feelings of the quarantine lifestyle. Ultimately, it’s a song about mental health and dealing with problems in a close environment,’ says lead singer Ian.
The Great Awake are from far away across the globe, namely from Sydney, Australia. There are twelve songs on this beautiful record. This band play their vision of melodic punk rock, kind of mixture between old school nineties sound of all those Fat/Epitaph bands that I grew up with and learned to love this music so much, and more mid tempo modern emotional melodic punk not unlike Flatliners or The Menzingers with kind of nervous guitar melody, bass and vocals bordering between singing clean and melodic, but also screaming melodic at times. Songs like ‘A Shitty Midlife Crisis’, ‘Our 20s Have Stopped Roaring’ and ‘Too Stubborn To Quit’ are lyrically and musically totally something that I can relate to in every way, being in the scene for thirty years now. We are speaking here of tight incredible musicianship and great songwriting what makes this record a secret little jewel of the punk rock scene.
THIEV are coming from New Jersey area and this band is comprised of two friends who wanted to play melodic punk rock and they do it perfectly. This EP contains three songs of old school Californian nineties influenced melodic hardcore with that Jersey pop punk influence, like more melodic hardcore version of Bouncing Souls for example. At least that is what I hear in their music. ‘Noise Machine’ is a pop punk oriented straightforward melodic punk song, while ‘The Paint Will Fade’ is my personal favorite being fast melodic pure hardcore song with nice melodic vocal lines and reminding me of Ignite’s faster songs or Chaser maybe, I love this one, but the EP as a whole is superb. ‘A Break In The Fence’ is also faster song, having that nineties pop punk influence with hardcore riffing. Only three songs, makes you wish for more at once. Great little record.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 