Bankrupt – Razor Wires and Neon Lights

Last year, Hungary’s Bankrupt came out of nowhere and thoroughly knocked my socks off with their five-song EP, Rocket to Riot City. They wasted no time in getting back into the studio and are now back with another EP, the six-song Razor Wires and Neon Lights – an album that has been able to live up to its predecessor’s shadow although I still can’t help but feel that Razor Wires is missing a little something.

Riot City was a no-nonsense pop-punk album, pulling heavily from classics like the Ramones but also recent additions to the pop-punk spectrum like Broadway Calls or Teenage Bottlerocket. The trio continue that trend on their fifth studio album as they once again pull heavily from the three-chord pop-punk of the Ramones (particularly on Parallel Worlds) but they also have left some of the 77 pop-punk elements behind a bit and replaced them with some more mid-nineties skate-punk characteristics.

Through that, the album becomes a bit more technical and faster; with some almost metal guitar riffs at times. The tracks then fall somewhere between the spectrum of 1208 and Strung Out – which is far from being negative but also comes as a bit of a surprise at times. The closing riff in Lonesome Train seems a bit out of place with its near chugging guitar and the vocals on the choruses of No Surrender and Wave of Bankruptcy sound almost like they’re coming through a filter and are heavily influenced by Alex Flynn of 1208.

Still, for the most part, Bankrupt stays routed in the classic one-two punk of pop-punk. Infectious choruses and bouncy melodies delivered at a fast paced speed, Razor Wires and Neon Lights is most definitely a fun and memorable pop-punk album – and one that I’ll pull out many times to listen to again. I just think that Rocket to Riot City was a bit more fun.