Pennywise – The Fuse

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

A simple philosophy that Pennywise seem to live by and their eight studio album, The Fuse, proves that. Throughout their career, the band have release steadily solid albums to much appreciation by fans and critics. Constant melodic punk that made the band so famous back in the day, and the fifteen track album is chopped full of the classic Pennywise punk rock sound. Blistering riffs, heavy drumming, melodic hardcore vocals with the occasional gang vocals backing Lindberg up all neatly compacted into a quick, heavy hitting, two to three minute punk rock onslaught. Songs about politics, the death of soldiers, lies, our obsession with winning, death, murders, technology and even FoxTV are all crammed into the CD with enough force to make any punk fan throw their fist in the air as they sing along with the solid vocals and run in circles in the mosh pit.

But nonetheless, The Fuse is still the exact same Pennywise it was eight albums ago. Although the formula can’t be dragged through the mud too much, simply because it is GOOD, it does get a bit tiresome after a while. After hearing fifteen songs that all follow the same guidelines, you find yourself eagerly reaching for the eject button. There’s no real change in pace or volume or emotion or sound anywhere throughout the album. The songs all sound the same and could easily be swapped for another without real notice. The Fuse lacks those few tracks every album needs to make it memorable Those few tracks which stand out and make you want to listen to it again. Without those few tracks, the album just seems to fall into the same category of any other mediocre album and fails to become memorable. Sure, Pennywise is a band you’ll never forget, but The Fuse isn’t something that will first come to mind when you think of the quartet. It needs its own Fuck Authority! on it to make it worth it.

If you’ve followed the band’s career for a while and have always enjoyed their melodic skate punk sound, then The Fuse will probably appear to you. But if they’ve never been a band of yours, then this won’t change your mind. It just seems to lack certain things to make it really memorable. It’s the same formula and same sound over and over again, rarely making any song standout in the growing crowd.