Pop punk makes an explosive comeback in album

ALEX HOBEN editor-in-chief alexandra.hoben@my.tccd.edu

A group of Los Angeles punk musicians are shredding their way through an apocalyptic sound track with this debut album.

The band Qbomb started in 2016, and on Oct. 30 they released “Hyperpunk,” their official first album. It includes 12 songs of crunched out, punked out, sci-fi techno melodies, shredding guitars and vocals. These songs are reminiscent of early 2010s punk and mosh pits, but with the sweetness of synths and melodic harmonies.

The album has a definite flow and cohesion to it. Each of these songs has consistent pushing of not only the melodies harmonizing but also the vocalists’ abilities while still sounding like they all belong together. The only main experimentation in this album isn’t through trying new methods to make music, but instead the music genre itself. Because to be honest, who really thinks of pop punk as a popular music genre anymore?

Pop punk music has been dying out as of late, but this new band coming along revitalizes it in a crazily good way. “Poison Pop” reaches into your chest and pulls out that defiance against the system in you while you chant with the chorus. “Insania” tells the relatable story of self-doubt and self-hatred when a project isn’t going in the way it should and gives you a reason to scream out insane for cathartic release.

This album is quintessential punk in its message, and their delivery of these messages was a new and fresher version of the qualities usually associated with the genre. Where there would’ve been a guitar riff, there’s now an added keytar offset with a key change that will blow your mind like in “Insania.”

This album has one of the strongest introductions and sequences that I have seen in a while. The first six tracks all seem to get better with each one that passes. It starts with a song setting up the exposition and tone of the whole album through an announcing format with “Buzzkiller” and just keeps building from there.

The switch from the desperate “Everything is Fine” to the angry “Insania” is just beautiful. The vocal acrobatics in both “Soften the Grave” and “Build a Giant Robot out of Trash” are inspiring, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget the lyrics “Reduce! Recycle! Revenge!”

The lyrics and stories behind this album are well-thought out and fun, even if their message is incredibly dour. Due to the music being so high energy and upbeat to stay with the punk and metal aspects of it, there’s no time to feel the repercussions of all the anger in the lyrics. Only the excitement and adrenaline that the guitars and drums push out of you.

While the quality is pretty consistent throughout the tracks, there is a bit of a dip in the middle third in the songs in both energy and harmony. “1,000,000 A.D.,” while it added story and world-building to the wasteland, it was a bit clunky to listen to.

The two different dialogues within the robot were very obvious, but got repetitive after a while. The sudden slow down of the whole song takes the listener out of the rhythm and momentum you just built up with the past six songs building up.

Though there is a definite slow down in the momentum, the album still ends strongly with the last two songs. “Crackershock” has some of the best deep bass singing in the album and is able to use the voices of the three vocalists evenly and meld them with the instruments really well. In the songs before you could tell who was the singer, but in this they all blend so well together it’s hard to separate them. Where the album started with a call of defiance, it ends with an exclamation of having enough. “Overkiller” is one of the grungier and discordant songs on the album and a strong note to end on. The way the song has run on lyrics and simple but hard hitting chords makes you want to hear what happens next but instead it ends abruptly with the sound of pulling out a plug, as if to say “the album’s done now, go home.”

“Hyperpunk” is an incredibly strong opening album for Qbomb, and their prowess in music shines through with pretty much every song. Here’s hoping this band blows up the charts and the punk scene so there’s a new age of hard-hitting, fun, experimental grunge with the message of raging against the world.

The game is once again afoot for detective Enola Holmes

her personality. She is seen as less a runaway and more like a stubborn, curious and smart woman that her mother molded her to be.

Sister of the famous Sherlock Holmes, the protagonist Enola Holmes from “Enola Holmes 2,” is a cunning, hyper-independent and talented detective.

“Enola Holmes 2” follows her life after she escapes her older brother’s captivity from the first movie. She opens up a business called Enola Holmes Detective Agency, but customers seem to like her last name rather than her skillset. She is often undermined and asked about her brother or told that ‘she is a woman’ in a condescending tone. Eventually she receives a case in which a little girl is looking for her missing sister.

Starring Millie Bobby Brown as Enola, Henry Cavill as Sherlock and Louis Partridge as Viscount Tewksbury, Enola Holmes 2 was even better than the first for a variety of reasons.

Enola has character development that wasn’t seen in the first movie. She struggles with her family, business and asks for help when she needs it. It is new because she was under Mycroft’s control as his ward in the first movie but now, another side of the new detective that is making a name for herself is being shown.

The movie is action-ridden with a sub-genre of romance and each contributes greatly to the film because Enola sees receiving help from her famous brother and pursuing Tewksbury as burdens.

She was raised to be hyper-independent by her mother, learning the art of the sciences, jujitsu, history and more so that she would not have to depend on anyone in her life. Even her name spelled backwards is the word ‘alone’ so it seems as though she was destined to do everything alone.

Her mother says otherwise, suggesting that she find allies and people that she can trust including her brother, Sherlock and Tewkesbury. The realization that she needn’t be alone was a true character development for her and better humanizes and strengthens

In the first movie, Tewksbury is escaping from his family and while Enola helps him do that, a romance brews. The romance is further explored in the second movie and the tension and longing that both of the characters displayed with their acting was beautiful.

The movie is largely focused on finding the girl’s sister however in the moments that Tewksbury and Enola are alone, it seems as though they only see each other, as corny as that sounds. Both Brown and Partridge obviously worked hard on their characters both individually and conducting their chemistry with one another.

Throughout the movie, Enola speaks to the audience and addresses them especially when she is in trouble or is anxious. In a scene where Tewksbury and Enola are dancing, she looks directly into the camera and displays signs of nervousness.

Enola Holmes 2 is one of a kind. From character development to romance it seems the audience begs for more or there wouldn’t be an Enola Holmes 2 to begin with. However one thing that was mildly distasteful was the pacing of the movie.

Don’t get me wrong, the execution of the film was stellar but it read more like a series than a movie. Rather than have Enola solve one case, a series would allow her to explore more and give more to the audience. The pacing was a little too fast and it felt forced a lot of the time, almost like there were too many ideas but a time frame that was too small to execute it in.

All in all it truly was a movie that deserved another following it, I just hope the directors flip the script like Enola’s mother flipped her name, and leave the movies alone.