Album Review: Peel – No Pain

“No Pain” is the fourth album release that Peel have thrown out into the stormy world of Punk, being that they hail from Chicago they certainly are in great company, Rise Against, Ok Go, Alkaline Trio being some of the biggest names that spring to mind.  But to be honest, their music is certainly more of a menagerie, filled with wild animal instinct guitar, drums that’s manically crash out in ultra speed, bass as deep and heavy as a herd of stampeding bison.  More of a Replacements hits Cheap Trick and crashes into The Dickies somewhere along the way.

Songs played with plenty of rock riffage, tons of punk attitude, and lyrics that simply takes life out on the road, parties with friends and especially what it means to survive in a crazy world!

“King Of The Sea” crash lands this album into your ears with its fast furious and somewhat frantic guitar solo’s, a rock song on speed, quickly followed by “Kill The Kahlua” (had to google this one, sheltered life you know) a coffee Rum liqueur, it’s equivalent party drink in the UK would be “Buckfast”, this song is a party of car crash proportions, a chorus that has you reaching for the phone and inviting friends round!

So much fun oozes from every pore of this seven track mini album, having skipped through some of the previous three, to get a reminder for what went before, this has got to be up at the top of the pile, how can this album not push this band to the top of your playlist, take “Highway Eyes” with it’s pure rock ballad feel, but with a passion of vocal that simply lifts it way above the plain,  then the title track “No Pain” a stand out of rock meets punk meets plenty of roll!

Creating a sound that at its core takes what has gone before but then translating this into something that still sounds new and raw, is an art Peel seem to have mastered, embracing music from the past, but creating music all their own.

By the end of this album, all you really want, is more than seven tracks!

Head to the bands Bandcamp to purchase this album

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Check out the video for “Ballad Of Dougie Ramone” below