DeeCRACKS’ 2021 LP ‘Serious Issues’ was by far the best of their career. On that LP, the vocals were still a little too aggressive for their often melodic punk sounds, but the Austrian band’s command of a riff and a catchy hook was still a cut above their earlier work, and a lot of other European punk acts. It was the kind of record that was capable of reminding people that Euro punk was far from dead, and even with DeeCRACKS dropping into some very familiar riffs on occasion, the speed and energy within the material suggested the band had a huge belief in the material.
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THE PIGEON BOYS – Detox/Retox
Following a string of digital singles and an EP, this album by Austrian punks felt a long time coming. Not only because the gradual release of singles built up interest slowly, but also because the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the planned recording of the bulk of the material. Better late than never, The Pigeon Boys finally released their first full length in the summer of 2022.
SUNNYDALES – The Puppet Show EP
For a band that essentially formed themselves around a novelty idea – to perform punk songs based on plot points from Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Sunnydales have a surprising amount of staying power. On this fourth EP, the Fresno punks sound better than ever. Granted, their lyrical schtick ploughs a similar furrow to before, and they display their love for Ramones’ past works so proudly, the influence isn’t ever subtle, but all of its predictability, ‘The Puppet Show’ EP shows them in a more confident way than ever before.
BLACK RUSSIANS – Communist Dudes
At the end of 2020, Black Russians issued a selection of new tracks as part of a split with US horror punks, The Jasons. The “Soviet Punk Rock” band might not have been the bigger name, but their material ran rings around the American act, showing a musical tightness and a humour that fit their chosen genre perfectly. A couple of years down the line, their full length ‘Communist Dudes’ makes good on the promise of those earlier tracks, delivering thirteen Ramones influenced bangers, dealing with topics such as satanism, communism, and an iron curtain winter. Armed with massive riffs and played with tongues firmly in cheek, aside from an obviously DIY production sound, it’s almost everything genre fans could hope for.
THE HALLINGTONS – Hop Til’ You Drop
Between 2013 and 2019, The Hallingtons released a string of EPs that slowly found them perfecting their own homage to Ramones. Hundreds of bands had recorded in a similar style before, but few had managed to capture the early sounds from Joey and Johnny quite as perfectly as The Hallingtons’ ‘Hexed’, proving the world was more than ready for the Norwegian punks to deliver a full length musical assault.