ALBUM REVIEW: The Bronx – Bronx VI (Cooking Vinyl)
Since they formed in Los Angeles in 2002, The Bronx have somehow managed to pull off a very tricky feat.
Some call them hardcore punk, others insist they’re hard rock, but for me they straddle the divide between the two, doing enough to keep devotees of both happy.
However you care to label them, The Bronx are a band who are hard to ignore. This is their sixth sequentially-numbered album of punk/rock/whatever, and for me it’s their best yet.
Rocking hard
Each of the 11 songs on Bronx VI is being released as a separate, limited-edition 7-inch single, but these songs work best as a complete body of work.
Opener and lead track White Shadow sets the tone, more hard rock than hardcore, and things get even beefier with Superbloom, with some juddering riffs and vocalist Matt Caughthran really letting loose.
Guitarists Joby J. Ford and Ken Horne trade king-size riffs on the glam-tinged Watering The Well (think The Sweet during their rock years), while Brad Magers (bass) and Joey Castillo (drums) give the songs a muscular backbone.
Curb Feelers is a real rock ‘n’ roll stomper, while Peace Pipe is an anthemic song about denying the obvious. Caughtran demands: “Are you just gonna keep singing the same song/Until the reaper comes along?”
The closing four tracks are as good a run of songs as you’ll hear – full of intensity, power and aggression.
New Lows, easily the punkiest song here, sets off at 90mph and the pedal remains pressed to the floor for nearly three minutes of hardcore delivered with real swagger.
It’s got a squalling solo which wouldn’t look out of place on a heavy metal record, and is possibly THE standout track on an album full of them.
The pace doesn’t let up for Breaking News. High energy doesn’t even begin to describe it as Caughthran warns: “Breaking news/We’re all fucked/And everyone’s shit out of luck”.
If those two songs confirm The Bronx’s punk credentials, the closing pair of Jack Of All Trades and Participation Trophy show why they need to be taken seriously by classic rock fans too.
I’ve seen them a couple of times live, and didn’t know what had hit me. Bronx VI has that same effect.
If this isn’t my album of the year, I can’t wait to hear the record that is. 9/10.
- The Bronx are due to visit the UK in January/February next year as support to Every Time I Die. Prepare to be blown away.
