Stick To Your Guns are and have always been truly special. Incorporating the morals and ideals we should all strive to live by in to their music, without ever letting it stop them from being as punishing and visceral as possible. The Orange County band have been nurturing the hearts and minds of their listeners for years. Last year’s ‘Disobedient’ saw them at their most enraged and intolerant, so its fair to say that stop gap EP ‘Better Ash Than Dust’ is sure to follow in its frenzied footsteps.

Stick To Your Guns exist in a very overcrowded and at times oversaturated scene, but have always come out as frontrunners because of one vital thing: integrity. Never losing sight of their original goals and delivering life lessons, motivation and eye opening aggression in abundance. ‘Better Ash Than Dust’ captures the band’s spirit of protest and teaching perfectly and propels it into your ear drums at 200MPH.

‘No Tolerance’ is an absolute storm of pit swelling riffs and bile soaked vocals, ‘Universal Language’ batters with worldwide truths and pulverizing beatdowns and ‘The Suspend’ brings things to a close in a sullen and piercing manner with thoughtful imagery and to make for a strong, sharp shot of hardcore intensity.

Through and through, ‘Better Ash Than Dust’ brings a breath of fresh air into a genre that often forgets where its roots lie, while also serving as a suitable palette cleanser for the between album slump that plagues many a band. Intelligent, rampant and chock full of moments that will have even the most novice of moshers two stepping like their life depended on it. Stick To Your Guns continue to inspire everyone that comes into contact with them, while never losing sight of creating a better community and world for all of us.

4/5

’Better Ash Than Dust’ by Stick To Your Guns is released on September 23rd on Pure Noise Records.

Stick To Your Guns links: Facebook|Twitter

Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)