Band of Bastards - DELETE. REPEAT.

Band of Bastards
DELETE. REPEAT.
Release Date: July 23rd, 2021
Genre: Hardcore Punk
Label: Redacted Records/SilverDoor Music

Right now, I think everyone misses concerts. The feeling one gets when seeing a live concert can be hard to put into words (although I try my damn hardest to relay everything I experience at a show when I’m writing reviews). It’s similar to seeing a film on the big screen, in a cinema, with hundreds of other people; the film will be the same when you see it at home on Netflix, but seeing it in theaters in a completely different experience altogether. To some, live concerts are church, a religious experience in which one can cleanse themselves of the anger they’ve felt from the respite of their daily nine to five, the problems with the significant other, the struggles to pay bills. For that hour and a half (or much longer, if you show up to watch all the openers) it’s the release that some people intrinsically need to survive another day here on Earth. There is no better haven for this than punk and metal shows. Band of Bastards, a four-piece act from Austin, TX, have managed to channel that entire experience into a twelve-track debut album, DELETE. REPEAT.

DELETE. REPEAT. clocks in at just under a half an hour, and it is unrelenting in its force, in-your-face attitude, and confidence as it speeds from one song to the next. You can practically hear the tubes on the amplifier warming up as the first track, “Ruined”, pumps through the speakers. Every track conjures up images that are essential to the ecosystem of a hardcore punk show: stage diving, grabbing the mic, cramped mosh pits; you can practically see the sweat and humidity in the air. Even when tracks slow the tempo, like on the third track “False Idols”, the intensity is still lingering in the air. The band, along with producer Charles Godfrey at Scary American Recordings (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Swans, Black Angels, Cannibal Corpse) build an impenetrable wall of sound with perfectly crisp guitars, punchy drums, and a fuzzy bass that you can feel rattling in your skull. 

And what is hardcore punk without a little bit of socio-political commentary? “Dying In The Streets”, the midpoint of the album, brings forth a scathing indictment of the policing system in this country, with vocalist Jason Reece reflecting on the protests that occurred last summer in response to the murder of George Floyd. Against a backdrop of flash bangs, sirens, and chanting crowd, Reece laments on those dying in the streets in numerous cities across the country (and eventually, around the world). As a helicopter flies into the distance, the band begs the question: after all this unrest, what comes next?

Two absolute standouts on DELETE. REPEAT. are “Let Me Out” and “Stand”. The latter starts slowly before building into a track that I can only imagine would involve hundreds of kids grabbing the mic and screaming “I can’t breathe/I can’t breathe/Let me out!” when the band plays live. Even listening to it in my home, it’s cathartic; a miniature therapy session that sums up a feeling we’ve all felt at one moment or another over the last year. “Stand” reminds me a lot of early AFI; circle-pit-inducing drums, shouted vocals, and one of the best punk guitar tones I’ve heard in years. 

The album closes on a hopeful note with “We’re All In This Together”. After a crushing two minutes, after the last mosh pit dies down, the music fades out and we’re left the band singing the song’s title as if it’s last call at the bar. It’s an appropriate note to go out on. Despite all the rage, all the intensity that accompanies hardcore punk, whether you’re listening at home or enveloped in the crowd that is crawling all over each other, Band of Bastards close their debut with a simple reminder: no matter how shit things get, we’re all in this together, and we’ve got to keep working towards being in a better place. But, of course, we can do that after we get our frustrations out at the punk rock show. 

Band of Bastards
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