Canada’s Our Darkest Days are gearing up to release their new album Snakes & Ladders next month. In preparation, we’ve got a new single for you.’A Sea Of Lies’ is the second offering from their album which will be released digitally and on CD on November 19th via Thousand Islands Records (North America) and Lockjaw Records (UK/Europe). Vinyl will ship first half of 2022.The ferocious follow up to 2016’s ‘A Common Agony’ features lightning-fast skatepunk tuneage and is the band’s most technical and refined music to date. Includes guest artists Steve Rawles (Belvedere), Étienne Dionne (Mute), Geir Pedersen (Adhesive) and Valérie Morin.Of the new single the band says: “Life is a journey that has its ups and downs, and even though the ideal path is a straight clean line this is hardly never the case. Even the easiest of routes can have unforeseen challenges that surface with no warning. Such as a ship that is misguided bythe force of nature that we could not have predicted, our lives are also rerouted in different directions because of the lies of those around us that force us to take alternate decisions. We’re on unstable ground and with the right entourage the key is tofind the balance between what is right and what is wrong”
Manchester’s melodic hardcore masters Fair Do’s return with a heavy new single. Casket is the first taste of their matured, heavier sound, which incorporates more jagged elements of metal into their signature technical style. This is their first release since the success of their debut album Leopards, landed via Lockjaw Records in 2018. Casket tackles the theme of late-stage capitalism, decrying that the things we love are covered in blood. In the words of bass player and lyricist, Josh Sumner, “We all want that lovely car or that new phone, but as we consume more and want more, death and the destruction of our civilisation approaches. Our casket moves closer to us.” The band have always been heavily politically influenced; they were described in the past as ‘a latter-day Propagandhi with a Manchester accent’. Casket is the band’s attempt to explain how the advancement of technology is marred by death – for example, the cobalt and other precious metals used in modern phones are often mined by children in poor welfare conditions. While companies try to sell us a slice of the executive lifestyle, Casket is a reflection on the ultimate downfall of humanity that consumerism could bring. Since the success of Leopards in 2018, Fair Do’s played a packed-out headline tour in Japan, supported the likes of Lagwagon and Cigar, played on the biggest stage at Manchester Punk Festival, and made jaunts to Germany, Italy and Slovenia. The COVID-19 pandemic stalled their live plans for 2020, but the break from touring has granted more practice and writing time – vocalist Danny Cummings has gained a new, catchier strain to his vocal, and he and lead guitarist Dave Speechley have added even more technical chops to their six-string skills. The band’s new music reflects the frustration and hopelessness of the working-class left wing in the past five years, existing in the time of Boris Johnson, Brexit and COVID-19. Fair Do’s have been writing and recording in isolation, during the bleak winter lockdowns, creating an improved, heavier, tighter sound out of a disquieting experience.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 