The sheer volume of punk bands coming up in the UK now is astounding, and, as a result, trying to stand out from the herd could mean the difference between success and fading into obscurity. One such band teetering on this precipice is Norwich four-piece Ducking Punches, with the upcoming release of their third album, ’Alamort’.

With Dan Allen’s emotive lyrical style and densely packed instrumentation, there’s a strong echo of bands such as Luca Brasi and Gnarwolves, particularly on ’With Unfounded Hope’. These influences are apparent across the whole record, with ’Smoking Spot’, ’Missing You Is Killing Me’, and ’Sobriety’ all sounding like high quality emulations of other bands.

That being said, it’s very hard to dislike ’Alamort’. At its core, the album is emotional, but relatable. Lyrically, it’s incredibly grounded, and doesn’t deal in a whole lot of metaphor. Not only this, it’s almost cheeky. Personality ebbs from every component at play here, adding a touch of humanity to the emotional element, grounding it further. All this is present on ’The Club with No Name’ in particular, one of the most memorable tracks on the whole album.

’I Ruin Everything’ is the stand out track from ’Alamort’, and sees the band change the pace and give the album some breathing room, showing what they can do with some emo influence. However, this is followed by the closer, ’I Was Uncomfortable’, an atmospheric track that piques interest at the beginning, but doesn’t really amass to anything spectacular as a final track.

With their influences on their sleeves, Ducking Punches

have crafted an album that has some high peaks and some disappointing troughs. The emotive songwriting is perhaps what’s most captivating on ’Alamort’, with there surely being something for everyone on there.

3.5/5

‘Alamort’ by Ducking Punches is released on 16th February on Xtra Mile Recordings.

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Words by Ben Mills (@BenMills28)