Special: First Listen Thoughts: As It Is "I Went To Hell And Back", Comeback Kid "Heavy Steps", William Ryan Key "Everything Except Desire"

As It Is - I Went To Hell And Back

Label: Fearless Records

Press release: Transatlantic trio, As It Is — Patty Walters, Ronald Ish, and Alistair Testo — have today announced their brand new album. I WENT TO HELL AND BACK, will be released on February 4th 2022 via Fearless Records. The album might have come to life over a two year period where Testo, Walters and Ish questioned their life choices and wrestled with a world in a constant throng of chaotic uncertainty, but the band’s fourth album couldn’t sound more excited. The fourteen tracks are powerful, and fearlessly chase the unexpected. It’s the sound of a band still having fun.

My thoughts: As It Is have never been shy about changing their sound around the pop-punk genre. Their first album on Fearless was a great batch of modern pop-punk songs (at the time) akin to Neck Deep and The Story So Far, they followed that up with a throwback pop-rock sounding record in Okay before going full MCR for their last release. On this newest release they take their previous two albums and smash them together while adding 808's and other elements of modern production on top. The album is a mixed bag for sure once through but there is enough high's (I Miss 2003, I Lie To Me) to come back and with the chances they took here it definitely has some enduring potential.

Comeback Kid - Heavy Steps

Label: Nuclear Blast

Press release: Today, one of the biggest names in modern hardcore, COMEBACK KID announce their seventh studio album, "Heavy Steps" will be released January 21, 2022 via Nuclear Blast worldwide (and New Damage Records in Canada). Although the members of the band are currently residing on different sides of the country in Vancouver and Toronto, the band decided to write and record their latest effort in the band’s originating city of Winnipeg, Manitoba at Private Ear Recording Studio and once again enlisted the services of producer John Paul Peters who recorded the band’s debut album "Turn It Around". In addition to co-production by Peters, on "Heavy Steps", COMEBACK KID collaborated with prominent Grammy award-winning mixer and long-time fan of the band Will Putney. "Heavy Steps" is no longer a prerequisite to realizing COMEBACK KID’s influence on modern punk, but a delivery of pure anthemic chaos, sheer speed and force. It is a statement of intent. 

My thoughts: For those that miss "Wake The Dead" era Comeback Kid, firstly their output has never been weak (maybe Broadcasting...), secondly check out Shadow Of A Doubt that sees Comeback Kid play in their old sandbox. Gang Vocals are ever present especially on the title track and Comeback Kid's production has never sounded cleaner. It's not all sugar and rainbows as I still can't get behind Crossed but Comeback Kid has positioned themselves as the best hardcore band from the early 00's onwards.

William Ryan Key - Everything Except Desire

Label: Equal Vision Records

Press release: Titled Everything Except Desire, the upcoming EP from the former Yellowcard vocalist is his brand new solo effort and is scheduled to be released in February next year, via Equal Vision Records/Rude Records. The upcoming EP was conceived and produced by Key on a month-to-month basis through Patreon at the start of Summer 2020. Speaking about the upcoming EP, Key says, “ever since I started making my own music, I think I’ve been searching for what became Everything Except Desire. I took a risk and created something completely unlike anything I’ve released in the past. This record felt like a big step for me both as a writer and a producer.”

My thoughts: I haven't really liked any of WRK's EP's to date. I understand he's trying to distance himself from "singer of Yellowcard" moniker and it's hard to do that if you pump out songs that sound like Yellowcard but this was clearly an attempt to do just that and practice with a bunch of new toys as a producer. WRK will always be among my favourite songwriters but with a 5.5 minute instrumental to lead off the album and a closer that has minimal lyrics to it. Brighton is a 6 minute song that could've been shorter but actually has some instruments on it (or sounds like it anyways). 

Special: First Listen Thoughts: Every Time I Die "Radical", Calling All Captains "Slowly Getting Better", Hot Milk "I Just Wanna Know What Happens When I'm Dead"

Every Time I Die - Radical

Label: Epitaph Records

Press release: Every Time I Die have detailed their ninth studio album, entitled ‘Radical’, the band’s first in five years. It follows 2016’s ‘Low Teens’. Lead vocalist Keith Buckley reflected on the overall themes of ‘Radical’ as an album, noting it deals in “difficult matters” that are also “universal and more communal experiences”. “The songs are realistic in that they acknowledge that things require a lot of work, but it’s ultimately a very hopeful and uplifting record,” he said.

My thoughts: I think we can officially put ETID in the conversation of consistant heavy bands with Silverstein and August Burns Red. Both those bands however release more music than ETID but the band has other pots on the stove (including professional wrestling??) Radical is a 16 track trip all over the soundscape we've come to expect from the band. Sly is probably my highlight but All This And War and the previously released Planet Shit are not far behind. Overall there wasn't any song I thought that wasn't good or at least interesting but given the near hour run time and those "interesting" tracks potentially not holding up over multiple listens I'm not quite prepared to claim Radical as the new best ETID record but it's certainly got the makings.

Calling All Captains - Slowly Getting Better

Label: Equal Vision Records

Press release: Titled Slowly Getting Better, the upcoming album from the Canadian pop-punk/post-hardcore quintet, Calling All Captains, is their debut full-length album and is scheduled to be released in October this year, via Equal Vision Records. The upcoming album intends to be a compilation of hardships, persistence, love, and acceptance, and is a thrilling follow-up to the 2019 EP, Nothing Grows Here. After their initial recording plans were halted in 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the band was able to bring in their Nothing Grows Here producer, Quinn Cyrankiewicz, and safely record the album at The Audio Department in their hometown.

My thoughts: While the whole pop punk seems to be going in either an 808/emo rap direction or the blink-182 riffs route. Calling All Captains is still out here championing heavy pop-punk music like the early The Story So Far records and since TSSF has backed away from that styling I'm glad we have CAC coming out of the west coast of Canada to pick them up. The guitars are crunchy, the vocals are rough, loud and emotive and the song structures are nearly as strong as the lyrics around mental illness and hardships of being a First Nations kid in modern society. 

Hot Milk - I Just Wanna Know What Happens When I'm Dead

Label: Music For Nations

Press release: Hot Milk have announced a new EP, 'I Just Wanna Know What Happens When I’m Dead'. "These songs are honest," says Han Mee. "I have nothing to hide. Everyone’s on anti-depressants these days. It’s the world we live in, it makes people sad. Capitalism. Is it broken? 100 per cent. I’m angry that the fact that we’re sold a world that actually doesn’t make your inner peace happy. Humans need love and community and a lot of the time, there is no love and the community has dissolved. "We’re angry, both politically and existentially in terms of the system we now live in. But also, we’re angry at the fact that we’re sad quite a lot, but we’re trying to not just sit there and take it. We’re trying to fix it, by building a family through this band."

My thoughts: Hot Milk knows how to write a good hook. That fact is undeniable. The most negative thing I can think about is that I wish this was a full length. Between the 2 EP's the band has released they could've had one hell of a debut album but alas we must wait but hopefully it's worthwhile given all the influences we get on this record, from pop, to heavy guitars, classic rock-esque solo's, electronic elements and supreme song writing tackling the overwhelming feeling of being in this world.

Special: First Listen Thoughts: Waterparks "FANDOM", Issues "Beautiful Oblivion" and Sleep On It "Pride & Disaster"

Waterparks - FANDOM

Label: Hopeless Records

Press Release: FANDOM, the third full-length from Waterparks (and first on Hopeless Records), and produced by Zakk Cervini (Good Charlotte, Beartooth), is an eclectic and enigmatic collection of songs that include the aforementioned “Watch What Happens Next” and the frenetic, tornado-like, “Turbulent” that was released in late May.

My thoughts: At this point it's obvious Waterparks will always be trying something new and FANDOM is riddled with new toys and tricks for the band to use. Awsten Knight went as far as to say that he almost scrapped a song (Telephone) because it was originally just a plain pop punk song but instead evolved it into something sonically different. There's still dashes of songs you can imagine being on their previous releases but layered in such a way that they also would seem out of place. Overall it listens very well the first time through, it'll be interesting if it can stand up to the other 2 full lengths over time however.

Issues - Beautiful Oblivion

Label: Rise Records

Press Release: Issues will release a new album, "Beautiful Oblivion", on October 4 via Rise Records. The disc takes the band's signature cocktail of metallic groove, hip-hop aplomb, alternative echoes, and edgy pop appeal a step further. The Atlanta band has delivered an instantly irresistible collection of anthems where singer Tyler Carter's nimble delivery seamlessly slips from R&B swagger into hard-hitting heaviness.

My thoughts: I don't think there is a better way to describe this record then "Heavy Pop". A lot was made of Issues kicking out screamer Michael Bohn before this 3rd record was recorded and although the 2 first singles were undeniably heavy, the album as a whole has a heavy pop influence even in some of the songs that have the heavy guitar riffs, Tyler Carter's soulful voice layers on top of it beautifully giving us some of Issues best work but only time will tell if their fanbase will get on board with this new sound.

Sleep On It - Pride & Disaster

Label: Equal Vision Records

Press Release: Pride & Disaster is the follow-up to 2017’s Overexposed, and features production by Mike Green and Kyle Black. With Pride & Disaster, Sleep On It harnesses the strength and vulnerability of the human spirit. Over the course of ten songs, they makes a case for enjoying life, even when times are tough, and never shying away from your truth. The positivity found throughout Pride & Disaster adds a silver lining to an album that is also unafraid to address the problems that many, including the band, face with mental health.

My thoughts: My last installment of this series praised all 3 bands for evolving their sound while still harking back to their earlier works. Sleep On It's 2nd album is cut from a similar clothe although the evolution isn't as drastic, it works. Pride & Disaster fires on all cylinders as the album is full of hit after hit and is a contender for Album of the Year after only one listen. Zech's voice is the highlight just above the improved harmonies and musicianship. If Overexposed was the gold standard, this might be the platinum standard.

Special: Ranking Waterparks "Entertainment"

What's good everybody. Today we're going to do something new as I'm going to look at an album and rank the tracks from worst to best, today's album is the last release from the Houston band Waterparks in honour of their new album Fandom dropping in October but before we look ahead, let's look into the past at Entertainment...

10. Crybaby

Track 9 on Entertainment is the obvious worst. It's the only track I actively skip on this album and for good reason. Although I can appreciate that the band was trying to experiment a bit with new sounds in ends up not being great, worst of all they crammed it in with Not Warriors on the music video. I must say the shorter version of Crybaby in the video is better since it only amounts to less than a minute with most of that instrumentation. But the crime there was cutting out half of Not Warriors.

9. Lucky People

Track 6 on Entertainment lands at #9 on my countdown, this was also the 2nd single released from the album and it's a fine tune still as the drop off from Crybaby to this is big but still something had to clock in here and after much thought it had to be this slow jam about Awsten's then girlfriend, who their previous album Double Dare was mostly dedicated to, before breaking up halfway through writing Entertainment.

8. Sleep Alone

The closing track to Entertainment is once again not a bad song at all, it's very upbeat and fun despite the lyrics being mostly dark until the chorus pops in with Awsten singing he'll come to this person so they won't ever have to sleep alone. The reason this is so low is mostly due to placement on the album, by the time this song plays you've already been singing and dancing to tons of other upbeat songs that this one can't measure up to.

7. We Need To Talk

Track 4 on Entertainment survives the bottom third of the album but doesn't get any higher. We Need To Talk was not technically released as a single during Entertainment's life cycle but it did get a music video after the 3 actual singles did which featured Awsten in Zombie makeup. The song is one of a few that was written after Awsten's breakup. It's a mid-tempo jam which I normally love but this one just couldn't hit that next level for me.

6. TANTRUM

Track 8 on Entertainment hits hard. This is probably the loudest Waterparks has ever been and will ever be. As you can guess by the songs name and the all caps stylelization this song is very angry and Awsten names the person this song is mostly about (Cam) and then states he'll keep the others nameless before adding a fuck it and naming Richard, Clayton, John and Will as well. Angry Awsten is great but this song is very hard to sing along to since Awsten can sing it all very fast.

5. 11:11

The opening track on Entertainment, 11:11 sets the tone for the entire album. It's fast, it's upbeat it deals with the main theme (luck). The lyrics are infectious, the pre-chorus especially as I can not stop singing it after even just one listen. It officially cracks the top 5, but that really doesn't do it justice. This album is just that strong that an awesome track like this can only barely squeeze into the top 50%.

4. Peach (Lobotomy)

Peach is the 3rd track on Entertainment and also got an unofficial single release as the final music video off the album seen a release about a year ago now as it was a live video the band filmed while on the final cross country Warped Tour. The song is a love song about the struggles of a long distance relationship and the lobotomy context is because the girl is all Awsten thinks about. It's a mid-tempo jam that just misses the top 3.

3. Rare

The highest ranking non single on Entertainment is track 7, Rare, which gets into the top 3 on the strength of it's overall catchiness. Another love song, Rare once again touches on the subject of the difficulty of long distance relationships and lyrically it is probably the strongest on the album which you discover right from the first line, "I save my metaphors for rainy days" which in itself is a metaphor. Awsten Knight you clever bastard...

2. Blonde

Well it took this long but finally at #2 we have the first instance where the song ranking mirrors it's tracklisting number on the album. Blonde was the lead single for the album as it most mirrored their previous albums even referencing their earlier EP Crave in the song. Awsten has gone on record saying Blonde is about a number of things but mostly it's about the difficulty of being in a touring band. Awsten also stated this song was being written when him and his girlfriend broke up which is why, tonally, the song is everywhere.

1. Not Warriors

The third and final official single from Entertainment was track 5, Not Warriors. This should not surprise anyone as this song got into #2 on my top songs of 2018 despite the aforementioned Crybaby bit in the video which may just have held it back from getting the #1 spot. This song also is a love song (shocking right?) that has nods to both Lucky People and Sleep Alone in it which makes it lyrically interesting. The musicianship is perfect making this an absolute bop being too punk for the pop kids but too pop for the punk kids which is right in my wheelhouse.