The best of their past, combined with new, forward-looking tricks to become something flawless. Fresh, nostalgic, beefy, futuristic, classic, and catchy.
Chugging, tense rock with a non-denominational punk ethic curling under hardened boogie cum cock rock guitars/rhythms from a gritty-eyed libertarian position.
Björk claimed it to be: Fun, a throwback to ’80s house/techno, and catchy. Volta really is the opposite of all those things. Björk’s worst record so far.
If Ramones were the Beach Boys of punk, The Queers are the Jan & Dean. The softer, younger brother of surf punk. They’ve got shobby-doo-wops, for God’s sake.
Emotion worn on the hearts of their white, frilly sleeves, Sonata Arctica sometimes get too close to maudlin. On the more orchestral side of the catalogue.
You hear about Dave the Christian, but he’s also an intense American, addictive, and he’s angry (again), and a student of rotten politics, conspiracies, and the flow of the money. A lethal combination.
Many camps took Bad Brains’ lead, from Fishbone to watered-down 311 and Sublime. But few have produced a work as edifying and emotionally whole as this.