As UK pop-punk continues to sail on smoothly and become more and more powerful with each passing day, it does mean more bands are sprouting up from crap towns with broken hearts and hardened emotions worn on their sleeves more than ever before. This does leave the genre in a rather saturated and faded state, but a handful out of the pack are genuinely flying the flag with confidence and posing a threat to bands from across the pond and beyond

One such example is Liverpool’s own WSTR, who with the help of a No Sleep Records endorsement and a certain Seb Barlow working the knobs behind the scenes, are making serious waves throughout the scene and are hoping that their debut EP ‘Skrwd’ will keep their heads above the water.

From the second ‘South Drive’ bursts into life with bustling drops and foot stamping pace, the band immediately set themselves apart from the rest of the pile. Aesthetically pleasing, infectiously grooving and emotionally honest, WSTR have the ‘hate my town, love my friends’ philosophy down to a tee without becoming a parody.

Th eir music takes all of the pent-up rage and angst of modern day pop punk and adds it to the classically buoyant style of the early 2000s to create a perfect blend that fans of any subsection can get behind. ‘Fairweather’ plays out as a beer-stained tribute to friendship, while ‘Graveyard Shift’ probes at the challenges that the real world poses, all glazed heavily with head-bopping riffs and fast-paced beats. With the carefree shrug of ‘Ain’t Great’ and anthemic pulsing of ‘Devils ‘N Demons’ rounding things off, WSTR have stated their claim for a bright and brilliant future, and shown how they are leagues ahead of their peers over the space of 6 expertly crafted bangers.

‘Skrwd’ is everything that is exciting, indulgent and genuinely fantastic about pop punk in 2015 and puts Waster in a position of power and possibility many bands will only dream of. Essential listening.

4.5/5

‘Skrwd’ EP by WSTR is released on September 4th on No Sleep Records.

Waster links: Facebook|Twitter

Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)