The Plague – Acid Punk

The Plague, sounds pretty damn scary huh, and from the outside it all looks the part too, an album called ‘Acid Punk’ a cover that frankly scares the fuck outta scary mask hating punks like me (yeah it really isn’t my thing), but anyway, you just have to forget the cover and all the dark connotations it brings, what you find inside is far from dark and scary, its more like heavy and moody with a side note of pure boogy going on, and with all that, it is still punk as fuck!

What makes this album so damn interesting as it gets thrown out into the big wide world and sets The Plague off on a journey, is the sickening feeling that this bunch of youngsters are gonna make so many long in the tooth punks so damn jealous, having time on your side and playing music this good at such a young age is nothing more than history to most of us, but what a way to start your career than an album with so much going in the right direction and be more to the point, an album that actually surpasses what some bands have aimed for for decades and still not achieved.  Needless to say, you should not take this review at its badly written word, and just go listen and be excited that you heard it right here, that this band are to be sat up and taken notice of! 

As far as the title of this album goes, Acid Punk is what it says and Acid Punk is what you get, a psychedelic mix of Punk/Rockabilly/Psychobilly/Garage Punk and just about anything else that drops into the melting pot, no LSD involved here I hope though.  This album takes all this onboard and gives it a 2022 slant, drawing 

So how does all this actually sound when blasted through the headphones or whatever it is that you prefer?.  

Word of warning, don’t hit play on track one ‘Acid Kids’ until your fully ready to be thrown all the way back to 1977 or just the back of the room if your not of that era, it blows aways any idea that this is nothing more than a copycat sound, its fully encompassing of all that came before, yet still fucking out there on its own, bass lines that have you pogoing like a demented kid (à la Damned New Rose) and a vocal that has a pure street punk vibe, all encompassed in a rockabilly esque beat, this all drops with an attitude that feels true to the bands life.

Whats never lost in this debut album, is the arrogance of youth, something that gets lost sometimes as age drags you back, this is full of all the angst and musical freedom that comes with not knowing or giving a fuck about what others actually think of what your doing, this fills this album in pretty much every single corner, songs like ‘Viva!’ Which kicks of with a nonsense rant, talks of revolution confusion, a state of chaos all fully encrusted in a musical scream up, song of the album for myself, then ‘A Bit’ hits the almost pop punk button, it bounds along yet still grudges with the best of them and even sticks a few natty licks in there too, and after all that you also get a track called ‘Brother’ (which was released as a single), with a killer bass line and frantic drum beat that drives it along like a runaway train, or maybe even the rockabilly beat filled ‘Greta’, but then what about ‘Mona Lisa’ that hints of a Hives influence maybe? Or is that just because for The Plague this is actually very slowed down rock, well only for half of it anyway.

No matter what your punk style is, I’m damn sure you could find a track or three that would satisfy you, there is even a five minute plus fest of what even bleeds over into Emo/punk at times ‘Alcohol’, but what this track also does is show just how acomplished and full this band is at such a young age (16-18 for gods sake!).  

Punk is most defiantly not dead, it lives breathes and fucking burns like a wildfire in The Plague and like a raging sun in the Acid Punk album, musical atom bombs that leave you aching for more!

Out digitally on 1st October, if you haven’t blacklisted it, head on over to SPOTIFY

Go find everything else about the band on their FACEBOOK