The Menzingers - After The Party Back with their fifth album, The Menzingers have produced an album that is high on melody, energy and stadium worthy anthems. I’ve never listened to much of their stuff in the past, only bits and pieces here and there but this one is a real banger and one that has me looking back at their previous work. ‘Tellin Lies’ is a storming opener, taking a look at where things go “when our twenties are over”, Vegas? Put it all on black and get married by Elvis? Despite the melody and softer sections, it is a stormer with some massive power chords, a great song to get a listener hooked from the get go.
‘Lookers’ takes a nostalgic look back at the Asbury Park days while ‘Midwestern States’ take them back to early touring days as younger men and being taken to court by landlords for unpaid rent, luckily things have worked out fairly well and they hopefully don’t have those worries anymore! There is a lot of different sounds on this record, sometimes several times a song but it all fits together extremely well. There is early years of punk influence on the album which fits the album well but it does not over power it or dilute the other sounds which are all stamped with a unique Menzingers stamp. This album could be classed as a musical autobiography, they are really digging in their youth while looking ahead to the future. This is a superb album and could be an early album of the year contender, there is one or two of them already despite it only being January (at the time of writing) and it makes for an exciting look ahead at the rest of the year. If like me, you are slightly ignorant of The Menzingers, then ‘After the Party’ is the perfect jumping on point, you won’t be disappointed. AN
Hellbound Hearts - Film Noir There has been a lot of great stuff already in 2017, Hellbound Hearts can add themselves to that statement with a debut album as impressive as any debut I’ve heard in the last couple of years. With a sound that stamped made in Britain they rocket out of the blocks with ‘Suffering the Radio’, packing melodic choruses and well-built verses. ‘Poor Disguises’ takes its time before launching into a fast paced, high octane riff machine, change the distortion sound and you have a thrash song but they make it sound pure rock n roll. These are songs that are made to be played live, you can just picture the scene, a pit of sweat and with such memorable and catchy choruses, the words being spat back at the stage. There is an energy and at times a ferocity about these songs, a slow song is teased once or twice with the likes of ‘Still We Wait’ and the piano opening of ‘We Are All Alone’ but they soon kick into perhaps some of the heaviest songs on the album. That unpredictability is something to be savoured and kept in their arsenal, it adds that little something else that will make them stand out from the rest. As ‘Silent Horror Movie’ wraps things up with a swagger and power, Hellbound Hearts have made themselves contenders. Things can only get bigger and better for them after this debut. AN