Way Back in April, Philadelphia based punk and ska-core band dropped a 6 song EP called Natural Disaster, and I missed it completely. However, I recently did a round-up of music that came out this year and found my oversight. So I put it on to see how it sounded, and I’m very thankful I did. It definitely warranted more listens and some more love. If you’re like me, and you missed this album too, keep reading and then go stream it.
This marks their first actual studio recording and the sound is not bad at all. You can definitely find Less Than Jake and Operation Ivy influences throughout the album. The sound is aggressive but still fun and danceable. The album opens with “Hi Fi”- which is musically one of my favorite tracks on the album. It’s just fun, heavy, punk ska. There are plenty of up-strokes, great horn rhythms, the drums, guitar, and bass all work together with solid vocals to reel me in and get me moving. The lyrics of struggle don’t capture my attention nearly as much as everything else in the song, but it’s still solid.
The second track, “Pawn”, is a little more hardcore influenced, and allows the drums to show off a lot more. This song is definitely more to get people moving in the pit, and is complete with a hardcore breakdown. As far as danceable hardcore ska goes, this track nails it.
The third track, “Burn it Down” is a little more my style- on every way. It’s the slowest song on the album, and a lot more two-tone in sound and theme. It’s more moon stomp and the song is about systemic oppression and rebellion. The gang vocal chorus repeated through the end of the song isn’t as impactful as I’d like, but overall the song is really good and it helps bring more depth to the album.
The 4th track, “Parasite” feels a lot more hard rock inspired than the others. While the middle of the song shifts to a much more ska rhythm and it has a really great and fun instrumental bridge that I love, the bulk of the song is heavily rock and roll inspired and at times it loses me.
My favorite track is “Invisible Lines” that backing vocals and melodies, the catchy ska riffs on the guitars, gang vocals chorus, calls for unity and justice in the chorus, this song is definitely my style. Its catchy ska-punk with a social message, danceable rhythms led by the bass and guitar, and just makes you want to move and dance and sing along.
Masquerade is actually a great finisher for the album. It’s sing-songy and syncopated vocal style. It’s the first track on the album that the lead vocals are doing the heavy lifting for carrying the song. It does a great job of showcasing the album and that everyone in the album can lead a song, and it ends with a nice horn dominated instrumental portion that is Reminiscent if the horns from the first track and hadn’t been showcased in any song since the start of the album, putting a nice bow on everything.
This album is a lot of fun, and I love the way they play with the mixing of genres and influences. Every single track does things that I love and keep me compelled, but at the same time, the early portion of the album had several songs that had something I felt was lacking or kept me from falling in love. I feel like this is a solid debut studio release, and I’ll definitely keep following the band to see how they continue to grow. This is good, but has the potential to fall into obscurity or to write absolutely great songs in the future, and I can’t wait to find out which way they go from here.
Written by Gimp Leg
