Album Review: Black Years - Black Years I

FIVES: THE BEST WONDER YEARS SONGS
This week Lansdale, Pennsylvania’s The Wonder Years released their fourth album - ‘The Greatest Generation,’ a record that sees the pop punk quintet reach their creative peak in a number of ways. With a wealth of material in their discography, Already Heard's Sean Reid and Tom Knott took on the tricky task of picking out the five best songs from The Wonder Years. Find out what we picked and let us know if you agree or disagree?

INTERVIEW: MALLORY KNOX
Following the release of their superb 'Signals' album, Mallory Knox have certainly become ones to watch in recent months. We caught up with the band to discuss joining Search & Destroy Records, how vital the festival season and touring are, what it feels like to be a part
of the expanding British rock scene and much more.

ALREADY HEARD RECOMMENDS: OVER THE OCEAN
Over The Ocean have crafted a compelling, brooding record with their latest effort ‘Be Given To The Soil.’ With intense specific precision and delicate accuracy that echoes the likes of Explosions In The Sky and Sigur Ros. Jesse Hill from the band to discusses how the
album came together, the importance of precision, being compared to post-rock pioneers and more.

VERSUS: BRING ME THE HORIZON - 'THERE IS A HELL...' VS 'SEMPITERNAL'
After a top ten UK album and an outstanding UK tour with festival dates on both sides of the Atlantic to follow, Bring Me The Horizon are having a fantastic 2013 and are now featured in the latest edition of "Versus." It's ‘There is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There is a Heaven, Let’s Keep it a Secret’ vs the bands latest release, 'Sempiternal.'

ALREADY HEARD TRACK GUIDE: ALEXANDER - SAY HELLO
We catch up with Newcastle Indie Rock quartet Alexander to find out more about their debut album 'Say Hello' for a “Already Heard Track Guide” feature.

INTERVIEW: TITLE FIGHT
Having briefly returned to the UK for the Hit The Deck Festival before starting a European
tour, we caught up with vocalist/bassist Ned Russin to discuss the bands progression in sound, differences between UK and US festivals, their recent split with Touché Amoré,
having friends on tour and more.

Album Review: Black Years - Black Years I

‘Black Years I’ is, fittingly enough, the first release from Chester based four-piece Black Years. This hardcore meets punk-rock outfit make music that could only soundtrack the most debauched parties, with four tracks of mischief for our delectation on this EP.

Opener ‘Black Years’ bounds along with limitless energy, as Rich O’Brien’s screams of “black fucking years” string the song along. This is disparate but furious hardcore and it is fucking good.

‘Girl Talk’ is next, thundering into life with a sleazy guitar riff and crashing drums. With hints of thrash guitar that make you want to kick stuff over, Black Years demonstrate a brutal and wholly enjoyable sound here. More intelligent musically than a lot of hardcore, the EP rises above the everyday and creates something that is genuinely fun to listen to.

‘Jonestown’ is next and delivers yet another party-inciting three minutes of chaos, with screeching guitars, vocals spat with venom and a sound not unlike early Gallows. By now, there is a sense that Black Years are more than a run of the mill hardcore/punk rock band and that this EP should be taken notice of.

Closer ‘Widows’ opens with the desperate “we can’t save rock ‘n’ roll, we can’t even save ourselves” and bursts into life from there. Halfway through, the chaos ceases for a moment to allow a spoken gang vocal. In what proves to be the calm before the storm, the EP finishes in characteristically rabid fashion. This is undoubtedly the strongest track on the EP and shows a band with a lot of potential starting to emerge.

This is a pleasing enough hardcore rabble that characterises itself as pure rock ‘n’ roll, party music but ends up delivering a lot more than that. There is a charm to Black Years that puts them above many other bands. Clever and vibrant lyrics and a sound that veers just the right side of anarchic DIY make an EP that is worth getting in to.

3.5/5

‘Black Years I’ by Black Years is out now.

Black Years links: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Soundcloud|

Words by Tom White (@whiteywitters)