If there’s one sub-genre of rock music that Northern Europe has always done well its skate punk. Right back to the halcyon days of the 90’s labels such as Burning Heart have released some genuinely brilliant records from the likes of The Satantic Surfers and No Fun At All.

It’s refreshing to see that the style is alive and well and bands are still producing interesting records. Going since 2003, Gothenburg’s Rebuke slow burned their way along to 2010’s ‘Wouldworks’ album followed by a slew of EP’s. The five tracks they present here are raucous fun in the classic skate-punk style. Think NOFX with a great big dollop of mosh and you won’t be a million miles away from the mark. ‘The Cellular Cosmogony’ in particular has some serious classic head-bang moments and brings Strung Out to mind. Witness the slowed down chug-a-thon at the end of the song and give yourself a neck ache worth suffering.

Nuremburg’s Money To Left To Burn approach their craft from a different angle. Where Rebuke are snotty, the Germans are intense and sound-wise land somewhere between Bad Religion and Bane. There’s an anthemic quality to their songs that will have many a punker fist pumping along with the anger driven attack of ‘Common Shame’ and ‘Proven Wrong’. It’s fast, it’s frantic and it’s a hella of a lot of fun!

The glory days for skate-punk may be long gone but as long as there are bands such as Rebuke and Money Left To Burn releasing records of this quality then the flame will continue to burn strong for a long time to come.

4/5

‘Split’ EP by Rebuke/Money Left To Burn is out o now on Disconnect Disconnect Records.

Disconnect Disconnect Records links: Bandcamp

Rebuke links:
Website|Facebook|Bandcamp

Money Left To Burn links: Facebook|Bandcamp

Words by Rob Fearnley.