Useless I.D. – The Lost Broken Bones

Five years ago I was introduced to the Israeli pop-punk band Useless I.D. when they opened up for No Use For A Name as they passed through town. I picked up their current album at the time, No Vacation From The World, and feel in love. Their pop-punk was fun, catchy and upbeat – an energetic flurry of three chord melodies and catchy pop-punk vocals. A few years later they released their fifth album, Redemption; a slightly darker album but one that still bubble with pop-punk audacity.

Three years later the band is back with their newest album, The Lost Broken Bones; and on top of being on a new label (Suburban Home Records), Useless ID have also crafted themselves a brand new sound.

It’s still a pop-punk record but gone are the MTV friendly vibes; instead Useless I.D. have delivered an ominous record that is much darker and gloomier than anything I’ve heard them do before. However, the change – while drastic – works and once you get over the initial shock it seems right and familiar. There’s an instant melodic hardcore vibe embedded within the record that comes through on the first passionate yell of “Isolate Me!” on the opening track of the same name. It sounds like a mixture of No Use For A Name pop-punk sensibility with Strung Out or A Wilhelm Scream metallic guitar work and more agitated and angry lyrics like Bigwig‘s Reclamation.

As it plays through, you can’t help but think of Gob‘s Muertos Vivos. The comparison works both sonically and fundamentally as The Lost Broken Bones sounds like the follow up to Muertos Vivos (although this one doesn’t have any four minute slow tracks to drag it down); and also features the same fundamental change that Gob went through between Foot In Mouth Disease and Muertos Vivos.

Useless I.D.‘s vocals are a mix between Tom Thacker and Tony Sly, with an emphasis on the later of the two, while the songs blast through with a throw back to the mid-nineties skate punk (Strung Out, Pennywise, etc.). The Blasting Room’s production qualities shine through as you can hear Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore’s signature touch on it. Mouse in A Maze has a slight Millencolin feel whileUndecided has elements of Revolutions Per Minute era Rise Against mixed with the aforementioned Gob resemblance. The entire album has a darkness overlapping it. Thunderous drums, fiery guitars, dark vocals and lyrics like “Passerby are hypnotized to never see how small we are/ Does anybody feel the same? / Nothing really lasts forever where they carve a tombstone with your name” all work together to create a gloomy sensation; but one you can’t help but sing along with.

So while it’s not exactly what I had expected to hear, Israel’s Useless I.D. have delivered an album that will help define their career and will surely spur them on to keep touring and writing music. Listen toNight Stalker, Give It Up, Mouse in A Maze or Blood Pressure and try not to get pulled into it; you won’t be able to.