It appears that bands with a love of mid to late 90s punk rock are coming through the scene playing melodic punk rock again. The screaming vocals and metal style riffs and solos are replaced with gang vocals and four chords. Canada’s The Flatliners represent everything I loved about punk when I was a kid back then, so it’s no surprise that I’ve found that I can’t get enough of this record.
The band’s third album is a solid slab of sing along, nod your head and raise your beer to punk. Sounding somewhere between The Bouncing Souls and Good Riddance, each track hooks you in. The songs are real; stories from the road where the band have spent majority of their time, working their way to success through hard work, slugging it out playing shitty dive after shitty dive. There’s songs of disconnection (‘Here Comes Treble’), there’s songs of doing it tough (‘Count Your Bruises’), but it’s not a depressing album. There’s a genuine positiveness that radiates through the songs.
The band also mix it up with the reggae inspired ‘He Was A Jazzman’, the straight up old school punk track ‘Shithawks’ and anthemic ‘Carry Your Banner’. Featuring cameos from the likes of Cancer Bats, A Wilhelm Scream and Dillinger Four, Cavalcade is a great record that sees this band really find their musical voice and I’m sure will win plenty of new fans. This one is definitely one of my favourite releases of the year. As I said, I can’t seem to get the songs out of my head and found myself just today listening to it quite a few times. For any punk rock fan, this is well worth checking out.
