Despite enough line-up changes to make Mark E Smith go on a sacking spree, frontman Tony ‘Reflex’ Cadena and bassist Steve Soto seem newly galvanised in driving these Californian hardcore survivors.
This is their third release in as many years, and here their middle-aged hackles have been raised by perennial punk bugbears such as police brutality, as on A Dish Best Served Cold, about the murder of homeless man Kelly Thomas in their home town of Fullerton. More importantly, tunes like 30 Seconds To Malibu and Talking To Myself boast the kind of vim more redolent of a bunch of snotty 22-year-olds.
In fact, it’s only when the tempo moves down a gear on Silent Water that it gets a bit forgettable, but for the most part the energy doesn’t let up, and the Buzzcockian pop harmonies of Let It Go make for a suitably triumphant ending.
