​​by GE 138.

     A kilt wearing Celtic Punk band that starts off their album with bagpipes playing over a Metal riff that would make Metallica blush? Well count me right the fuck in! 😆 Vancouver's The Real McKenzies 11th album, called Beer And Loathing, is filled with all the trappings that their rabid fans know to come and love from this band: thick sounding guitars galore, bagpipes everywhere, hard hitting, well played drum work and rollicking tales of drunken debauchery and legendary battles of some sort as lyrics. If you're already a fan of the band then you'll know what I'm talking about... heh Relying heavily on the playbook The Pogues used to attain success, and i know it's cliched and lazy to bring up the similarities but it's really hard not to notice them, but The Real McKenzies, just like The Pogues before them, are a real deal Celtic punk band, and have toured all over the world and established themselves as one of the fathers and founders of that whole Celtic Punk scene, which is pretty rad and very commendable. I got into the band late in the game, but I still like a lot of their earlier stuff, and this album is full of some good tunes that remind me of that earlier, classic material. Songs like Nary Do Gooder, Big Foot Steps, and The Ballad Of Cpl. Hornburg perfectly encapsulate the bands sound, and the production on this album makes all these songs sound great when played at an extremely loud volume, which is almost essential to any good punk rock album nowadays.
     The Real McKenzies have been at this whole "Punk Band" thing for a long time now, and they've pretty much learned along the way how to write and create good sounding tunes that will get any crowd of drunken yahoos up and chasing themselves around in circles, and this album Beer And Loathing is chock full of them. Loud guitars, toe tapping beats, sing along vocals, and some bagpipes thrown in for good measure! Beer And Loathing is everything you expect and more from The Real McKenzies, and this album is as good a spot as any to get yourself acquainted with this impressive punk band. Beer And Loathing is another great addition to The Real McKenzies catalog of recorded music. It's catchy, it sounds great, and it's never boring, which is always a good thing. Nice release from The Real McKenzies. Comes highly recommended. 

Available from Fat Wreck Chords, and you can go here to get the album directly from them. Cool colored vinyl versions available I'm sure as well. Available digitally on all known formats. Like The Real McKenzies on Facebook by clicking here, and follow the band on the 'Gram by clicking here. 

​by GE 138.

     What do you get when a couple of Metalcore bands step outside their comfort zone of growls, squeals and downtuned guitars and start playing some angry fun Punk tunes? Well you get what sounds like Imperial Leather! ha ha ha Or in this case, you get a band called Glorious, who's debut album called Unashamed is kicking up a ruckus on both sides of the pond and for good reason. Comprised of members of the bands Employed To Serve and Renounced, Glorious is a refreshing throwback to a time when Punk was just getting tinged by the whole Metal crossover thing which bands like D.R.I.,  Agnostic Front , and COC jumped on so shamelessly. The guitars got meaner and thicker and fuller sounding, and it became OK to let your hair grow long. Yuck. Unashamed has all that going for it and more; thick, monster sounding guitar riffs with a fast and furious rhythm section that can speed things up when needed or drop the pace down to a crawl when ordered, sometimes all within the same song. The female vocals make it all stand head and shoulders above everyone else that sounds like this, and the production on this album makes it sound most excellent when played at a ridiculously loud volume. The title track and the song Myself are worth the price of admission alone, and they throw on a fun but unnecessary cover of Type O Negative's I Don't Wanna Be Me at the end of this 5 song EP just for shits and giggles, and it goes along well with all the other songs that came before it. This is a pretty good first release from Glorious. Looking forward to hearing some more stuff from them in the not too distant future I hope. If you're into some hard hitting stuff like The Bronx, or Git Some, or maybe even The Fumes if you remember them, then check out Glorious and see what you think. It's pretty good stuff. 😎

Available from Church Road Records, and on lovely yellow vinyl right here if you're quick and lucky enough to grab one. Also available digitally on the Church Road Records Bandcamp page by clicking here.