Bandaid Brigade is a new band in the scene but the you might know the members via their other bands and projects. With line-up Brian Wahlstrom(Scorpios, Gods Of Mount Olympus…), Zach Quinn(Pears), Paul Rucker(Street Dogs) and Chris Fogal(The Gamits) little could go wrong, right? Right! This is for sure one of the best albums I have listened for a long time. This is not your usual hardcore punk mayhem. These songs are punkrock in the base, but leaning more on pop, rock, mainly some 80-ies influences. I can hear a lot of Freddie Mercury in Everything, song with fantastic melody. Travel Light, song for which a video was made is more of a disco pop punk song and shows all the richness of Brian and Zach in their vocal lines, creating otherworldly experience while listening. You can hear a bit of sax in Stay Busy, but also cello and violin in the song structures, showing these guys are not afraid to break boundaries and enrich the songs, yet returning to heavy guitar duty with the superb guitar melody in Treat Me Like A Christmas Tree, then comes Losing Light, the song which I listened on repeat for many, many, times. Not to discover just all, the scene purists will not like this one, I personally love this record. I would love to see this band live, I know it would be a blast.
Bauwaves are coming from Austin, Texas and were formed in 2018. This is their debut album and it contains 10 songs. What I really like about this one, is they played raw old school sounding, gritty punkrock with a lost of melody, but also you can feel some garage and even doom Sabbath influences in the song structures. The vocals are just like they should be for such music, raw voiced yet melodic and powerful. I love the old school rehearsal room sound the guys have on their record and it makes me very nostalgic for all the 90-ies demo tapes, early diy albums and everything we collected back then via tape trading in those days. This album carries diy punkrock spirit with pride and in their hearts. Recommended songs: Into the light, Years later, U r everything. This is a great record!
Wish Upon A Star are punkrock band from Athens, Greece. This is their new record. There are six songs on this little record, enough to make you want more. Punk is a music of rebellion and Greece has survived a lot in the last couple of years to make your blood boil with anger, so Wish Upon A Star play a combination of melodic, yet angry punk. Bow To None is a hymn of never surrendering the fight, despite how the odds are heavy sometimes. Intruders is a fast hardcore punk song and one of my favorites on this record, really fantastic riff melody and angry yet melodic dual vocal lines are superb. The title song somehow reminded me of Ignite, newer albums, not vocally, but musically somehow, maybe it is only me. This song has beautiful chorus and backing vocal harmonies, also one of my favorites on the record. Voices is a bit nervous, almost noise sounding song, a bit different from the rest of the material, maybe a bit more raw and with primal rock and roll energy. Head On A Platter is a punk bomb of a song with so nice main melody line and harmonies that made my skin crawl with goosebumps. Wasteland finishes off the record with style. I really can`t wait for the full length album!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 