Four Year Strong

If it’s hard for you to believe that Four Year Strong have been a band for nearly two decades, you’re not alone because its members feel the same way. Since forming in 2001 in Worcester, Massachusettes, while the members were still in high school, Four Year Strong have carved out their own niche in the music community by merging the infectiousness of pop-punk with the aggression of hardcore and never shying away from breaking with creativity-limiting conventions. This is evident on the band’s fifth full-length Brain Pain, a collection of songs that retains the qualities of the band that fans have grown to love while pushing forward the band’s effort to continually redefine their sound. “One thing we’ve struggled with in the past is writing in a way that’s personal to us that our wide range of fans can find a way to relate to as well,” vocalist/guitarist Dan O’Connor explains. “On this record we really tried to find the thing that connects us to our younger fans or the people who have been listening to us for a long time who still see us as younger kids despite the fact that we’re now in our thirties.”
 
The band -- which also features vocalist/guitarist Alan Day, bassist Joe Weiss and drummer Jake Massucco -- began conceptualizing the ideas for Brain Pain two years ago and for the past year-and-a-half have focused on bringing those thoughts to fruition. “We probably had 40 song ideas to get the creative juices flowing and some of those grew into the songs that are on this record,” Day explains, adding that it was important for the group not to rush the album or go into it with any musical or logistical limitations. “We didn’t want to set a strict deadline for this album because we wanted to be sure we took the time to write the best songs possible. In the past our writing and recording was so dependent on getting something out in time to go on tour; this time we really had the opportunity to take our time and work through these ideas.” In order to capture that sound the group enlisted producer Will Putney, who was an engineer on 2010’s Enemy Of The World and already had a relationship with the band. “We were really emotionally invested in this music so we wanted to go with someone who we knew would care about it as much as we did and Will was that guy,” Day says.
 
From the off-time breakdown of the opener “It’s Cool” to the orchestral balladry of “Be Good When I’m Gone” to the midtempo groove of “Get Out Of My Head,” Brain Pain sees Four Year Strong showcasing the various aspects of their sound, which ranges from catchy to chaotic, yet all sound undeniably like Four Year Strong. “I think ‘Get Out Of My Head’ holds a special place in our hearts because it was the first song that we finished front-to-back with all the pieces in there,” Day explains. “Almost none of it changed from when we first wrote it to the finished version of it and it felt like a turning point in the writing process.” Alternately “Seventeen” evokes the best parts of nostalgia without sounding dated while the syncopated riffing on “Usefully Useless” crafts a sonic maelstrom that’s as inventive as it is infectious. Finally old-school fans will love songs like “Mouth Full Of Dirt” which showcases the melodic hardcore style the band helped pioneer and sounds absolutely massive thanks to Putney’s production.
 
Vocally Brain Pain sees the band being more direct and carrying over cohesive themes in a way they haven’t done in the past, making for a more complete narrative. “I think that from a lyrical perspective this is the most thought we’ve ever put into a record,” O’ Connor explains -- and it shows. Sonically the album’s vocals also sit in the mix in a way that they aren’t battling with the other elements, making Brain Pain the band’s most dynamic release to date. “There are a lot more bands doing the heavy-but-poppy hybrid thing now than there were when we started out and we just really wanted this record to stand out and be its own version of that,” Massucco explains. “Our goal was to make a record that felt authentic to who we are, not pander to some version of us that we thought people wanted to hear,” Day affirms. “I think we did that this time around.”
 
“We always try to evolve the sound of our band,” O’Connor adds. “I think that's one of the things that has separated us from some of the bands who are around for a long time because you can get kind of sendenary and happy with where you are. We always say, ‘if Four Year Strong is a box we're always trying to push the edges of that box out a little bit of what the band can be’ and I think that's keeps it exciting for us,” he summarizes when asked about how the band have managed to stay relevant for so long. “A lot of the things we did when we were younger kids were throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks. Now we're trying to come to a place with everything we're doing where it's a little more thought out… which is what old guys would do,” he adds with a laugh, “but we’re really happy with how it turned out.”

With Piecing It Together, their fourth full-length album, Free Throw grapple with hard truths. After three albums and a decade of hard work, including countless performances worldwide, the members — Cory Castro, Lawrence Warner, Justin Castro, Jake Hughes, and Kevin Garcia — have a fresh perspective on life. The band is through obsessing over what comes next and romanticizing the moments that have already passed. Instead, Free Throw is making music about the present and how seeking balance in our lives is far more meaningful work than the endless pursuit of whatever you deem to be 'enough.'

"It's very hard when for a band like us to take time off," drummer Kevin Garcia explains. "We go home to write and record, then we go on tour. Rinse and repeat, you know? When we got into this writing process, we stopped feeling like we existed in a mold or on a path that Free Throw is supposed to keep going on with our contemporaries. We stopped worrying about what tour we may be fighting for next or what someone else does. We were just writing songs that we really like writing. "

Throughout the album's twelve tracks, Piecing It Together finds the men of Free Throw abandoning childhood notions of success and happiness through a thorough exploration of personal fulfillment. It's about reaching the heights that once felt impossible and everything that comes after. How no matter what we do or where we go, we must continue to wake up and find the strength to keep on keeping on despite everything we tell ourselves about ourselves.

Piecing It Together is an exploration of self-acceptance, and Free Throw invites everyone to join.

One Step Closer has always believed that hardcore is limitless. On All You Embrace, the band puts that theory into practice. Every release from the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania band has seen them exploring the sonic overlaps of hardcore, emo, and ‘90s alternative rock without an iota of self-consciousness, or pretension, creeping into the mix. The band’s latest is a collection of 11 songs that show One Step Closer reaching for something deeply honest and, as always, authentic.

With founding members Ryan Savitski (vocals) and Ross Thompson (guitar) at the helm of One Step Closer, alongside newest addition Colman O’Brien (guitar), the three were able to fearlessly guide One Step Closer in new directions. Taken in full, All You Embrace is the sound of One Step Closer honoring their past while building a future that looks more open, more creative, and more expansive than anything the band has done before.

Death Lens want to be in your ear at all times. They hide their ferocity underneath a thick veneer of style until the energy and chaos of one of their live shows leaves every audience member disarmed and forever changed. Off the strength of 2022’s No Luck, tours with Militarie Gun and Together Pangea, and the support of their hometown, Death Lens is releasing their new album, Cold World, May 3rd on Epitaph Records. 

 For Death Lens, it’s all been building to this. Cold World is a departure from the early styles Death Lens mimicked as a young band, transmuting them into matured and brawny post-hardcore tinged rock songs. 

 On record, Death Lens have an established habit of writing hard-nosed rock that combines West Coast reverbed-out surf punk with tight and bouncy Britrock, deceptively characterizing the band as exclusively chill and vibe-focused when live, a Death Lens show has all the energy of hardcore. Slick guitar sonics and sugary backing vocal harmonies that feel like the best parts of indie punk and shoegaze are the foundation of their style, but in a 200 capacity room, Death Lens brings the same winning concoction as Turnstile and Militarie Gun. In other words, these are the kinds of songs that become the soundtrack to enduring memories of nights of drunken, sweat-drenched singalongs.  

Death Lens started in 2012 as an instrumental project intended to “express ourselves with emotions only and no vocals,” before member Bryan Torres sought more for the group and moved to singing. The self-described “five Brown boys from La Puente,” have gradually moved from straight up showcasing their explosive energy and attitude in their recordings to being a downright refined example of their hard work and early influences gaining traction within their scene.  

 Growing up as minorities 20 miles east of Los Angeles with constant harassment by police and heavy gang violence, Death Lens faced many risk factors that could’ve led them astray from this moment. 

 “We began as your typical party garage punk,” explains Torres, “but have evolved to using our platform to speak [on] living in heavily policed areas, immigrant dominant areas where we push for immigration reforms and using any resources we have to help the community.” 

 Lyrically, Torres is reckoning with his place in the world, examining social injustices, current political and world unrest, and his emotional, mental, and physical reactions to it all. On Cold World, the guitar tones are the best they’ve ever been, the songwriting is stronger than it’s ever been, and the hooks are massive, culminating in Death Lens far and away creating their best work to date. For production on Cold World, the band went to NYC producer Brett Romnes (Hot Mulligan, Mom Jeans) and got straight to work on communicating how to execute their vision. 

“The genius behind the production and recording was Brett Romnes. This was our first time using a producer and we were scared that our sound was not going to be us, but Brett was such an amazing addition to the writing process. We molded our thoughts together, he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, we disagreed in parts, a lot of banter, a lot of “Ah ha!” Moments that led to amazing riffs and lyrics and creative ideas. That goal was to find a common ground and build off of that and we did almost instantly on day one, it was beautiful. We like a guy leading us who is rough around the edges, and that was Brett Romnes. He was like the 6th member of Death Lens, he was a part of us for those weeks together.” 

Death Lens’ songs getting even more reverb and the raw dial getting turned back a notch ended up being only a sonic preface to the kinds of space they were gearing up to leave for the substantial hooks they were set to write for Cold World. The harmonized backing vocals are there on songs like “Vacant.” There’s a gorgeous piano intro at the top of “Bruised,” tambourine on “Memory Hotline,” and a moving string arrangement underneath acoustic guitar and Torres’ singing on “Lo Que Sera.” There’s a confidence and adventure to tracks like “Fucked Up,” “Nothing’s Forever,” and “Not Enough,” that show just how secure Death Lens are coming with Cold World. 

 “We use themes for our albums to build a story and “Cold World” just seemed to fit in the days we’re living. Cold World is the desire to thrive in a deteriorating world all while pushing those who feel like there is no hope and hoping to give them a second wind, a sense of hope.” 

 Where their previous work was either rhythmic crashes of energy or glossy croons over strummed melodies, Cold World simply revs up and drives. The guitars of Jhon Reyes and Matt Silva tastefully simmer and sear where they once screamed on the track. Tempos are as consistent as they ever were, but rhythms held together by bassist Eduardo Contreras between the percussion of drummer Tony Rangel and Bryan Torres’ vocals are often synchronized, while Torres’ is much more a rhythmic bark and less the indie croon he used before quarantine. Maybe living as Brown people in one of the most wealth disparate areas of the country did that. It’s certainly the vibe you get watching Death Lens perform to a crowd of Brown kids with every bit as much attitude as a band like IDLES. 

 “We’re all unified in the way we think, we all believe in a fair system for all to live without struggle and with a reasonable cost of living,” Torres says, “We side strongly with socialist ideals proudly. We’re also very pro Latino and pushing heavier to see more Hispanic bands up on stage, pro LGBTQ, pro immigration and everything in between.” 

“One world, one community.”