Listen Up! Are you deaf yet?

Hey guys,
I thought I would finish off the week with a double-header review of the new releases from The Flatliners and A wilhelm scream.
I thought it fitting to put two write-ups into one as both of these records will smash you in the face with balls to the wall punk rock melodies.

I’ll start with the latest release from The Flatliners which is ‘The great awake’. I think the title is appropriate as it will wake you up with fast explosive punk melodies from the first track and doesn’t let up for another 35 min. This Canadian band is the newest addition on the fat wreck chords label. While I haven’t heard their 1st release (destroy to create on stomp records), it’s said to have more of a ska/reggae skew compared to the straight edged punk heard on this new release. While certain tracks do show a hint of their earlier roots it’s only expressed with subtle guitar and bass strumming rather than horns. I’m not quite sure why they pulled back on this style as it could have added some much needed depth to the album.
A greater change in style or pace also would have added a bit more variety to the tracks as it’s sometimes hard to tell when one ends and the next begins. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it does mean that most songs aren’t liable to leave a lasting impression on you apart from your ears ringing.
Due to the lack of unique songs I’ll just highlight the memorable ones rather than give every track a rundown.
‘Eulogy’ is by far my favourite track and is definitely a 5 star song. There’s something about the chorus that really does it for me. It could be the passion or it could just be the ripping melody. Either way this track is the only one off the album that has been stuck in my head all week
‘Mother Teresa Chokeslams The World’ and ‘These Words Are bullets’ also have standout choruses. The aggressive anthem of “we’re tired of waiting” and “we are the dead generation staring down the barrel of your gun” sum up the general theme on this album.
The subtle ska sounding bass line on ‘And The World Files For Chapter 11’ sounds similar to some of Operation Ivy’s stuff but with more rock. The “Hey, Hey’s” thrown out in the background are also cool.
The slowest song on the album is ‘This Respirator’ which has a cool relaxed vibe to it (well as relaxed as punks get).
Their last track ‘KHTDR’ is the most unique due to the presence of horns and numerous switches between rock and ska styles. While it comes in at a whooping 7 minutes in length it was still able to maintain my interest throughout. This therefore goes to show what these Canadians are capable of when they put their ska style to good use.

In summary ‘The New Wake’ is by the numbers energetic punk release that is good while it lasts and is sure to please those into straight and fast punk music. The only downside is that I thought it could have done with a few more memorable tracks. Now I’ll have to check out their first release and see if its more pronounced ska sound can fully convert me to this band in the future.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Now onto the A Wilhelm Scream (AWS) release titled ‘Career Suicide’ which is the 3rd EP from this 5-piece Massachusetts band.
If you’ve never listened to any of their previous stuff (Ruiner, Mute Print) then you should be warned to put on an extra pair of socks as these guys will knock them right off. Actually you better put on an extra pair of underwear just in case their crazy riffs make you shit yourself. Comparisons have been made between A Wilhelm and Strung Out as both have insanely fast guitar work. However AWS have their own unique melodic style with plenty of short and sweet solos thrown in whenever they get the chance. I think guitarist Trevor Reilly best sums up this album when he explained why some songs were left of the final release. “Those songs aren’t that fast (comparatively) so they didn’t make the record. We really like them a lot, so they will get released, but hey, they weren’t fuckin’ fast enough!! OK?! This one’s built for speed”. Anyway to get the most out of this album make sure to strap yourself in and crank up your stereo full bore.
Now for a give a brief description of some of the highlights on ‘Career Suicide’.
The first track ‘I Wipe My Ass With Your Showbiz’ is an awesome opener and is direct and fast with an obvious message as summarised by the lyrics “I tried to buy my soul back but the devil made me bend over for it”.
‘Cold Slither II’ is probably the most melodic tune with good background vocal support, while the track ‘These Dead Streets’ has plenty of woahhh’s, thrown in and an awesome drumbeat that picks up during the chorus.
The title song ‘Career Suicide’ is probably the only one with a subdued start. The melodic guitar intro finally lets you take a 10 sec breather but since the whole track is only 1 min 35 it doesn’t take long before it kicks into overtime.
‘Jaws 3, People 0’ is awesome and has plenty of fucks thrown in and one friggin sweet bass solo in the middle.
‘The Horse’ is the highlight 5 star track on this album and after 5 minutes it’s covered all bases. Insane riffs, Check. Fast chords, Check. Angry chorus, Check. Breakdown, Hell Yeah! It starts with a full out instrument assault with the guitars, which then meld into an awesome riff that lend great support to the lyrics. “Why are we so angry, why are we so bored that we can’t say no”.
If you haven’t already keeled over from the aural assault throughout the album there’s a killer track to finish you off. When I first saw the title ‘We Built This City (On Debts And Booze)’ I thought they would try their hand at a cover of the Starship classic ‘We Built This City On Rock and Roll’ but nope it’s a song about the monotony of a standard life. It also has a cool drum section with the lyrics spitting out “awake, arise, eat, work, shit, sleep” and ends with the shout out “Wake up!” Seems like smacking you awake was the general theme here amongst the two albums.

I think the only problem with this Career Suicide EP is the short length of the songs, which leave you wanted more. Four of the tracks clock in under the 2 min mark with the average being only 2 min 30 sec. This therefore leads to a very short but intense album ending with 32 minutes of power (I think my minutes of power at Inverock were more impressive, but that’s a story for another time). On this release AWS have shown that they can create 4 min songs that are able to go the distance with the stand out tracks being ‘The Horse’ and ‘We Built This City’. On a side note one of the guitarist’s responsible for a lot of the guitar chord shenanigans left the band following the release of the album. I’ve never heard such fast guitar work and therefore I think it would be mighty hard to fill this void with someone else. This could affect the sound of future releases or live performances but here’s hoping to see these guys play live over here sometime soon, as I can’t wait to die in the mosh pit.
In conclusion the machine gun drums, powerful guitar solos and aggressive vocals all mesh together into the most perfect explosion of punk rock your likely to hear all year.

Overall Score: 8.5/10

Well my ears are now bleeding and for some reason after listening to all this energetic music I want to go outside and punch some shit. So tell next time Cun-try music lovers (If you don’t get the reference check the ep6 podcast or arrested development).