EP REVIEW: Before They Are Hanged – These Times Alone (Hangedmusic18)
Before They Are Hanged are a four-piece punk band from Derbyshire who formed in 2018.
The line-up is Si (vocals), Dan (guitar/vocals), Trev (bass/vocals), Ben (drums/vocals) and they play good old-school melodic punk rock.
This EP is something of a Covid-created stopgap, as they had aimed to have a debut album with us by now.
These Times Alone is a pacy opener with a great gutsy guitar sound , which ends with Si invoking his inner Johnny Rotten, repeating:”It’s not where I wanna be”.
Story Of My Life (nothing to do with the Social Distortion song) is an upbeat number which reflects on the darkest days of lockdown.
Ground Down is heavier still, and slows things down a little. It seems to be about standing up for yourself, and reminds me of the UK Subs.
The short, sharp Nowhere Without You, previously unreleased, picks the pace up again. It’s my favourite track here, with chugging guitar and ‘woah-oh’ backing vocals.
D.I.Y., which brings things to a close, is a more polished version of one of their earlier tracks, about having to cope alone. Indeed, mental health seems to be a recurrent theme on much of the EP.
The EP comes in two CD versions. The blue version, which has the tracklist above, is limited to 50 copies. The orange version features those same five tracks, plus Where’s Roy. That’s a song resurrected from their very first release, 2018’s Live Session EP.
Buy the blue CD from Before They Are Hanged’s Bandcamp page HERE, and download the sold-out orange version HERE.
All in all, this is a tasty appetiser for the full-length album which the band will hopefully be able to complete soon.
