The Omnipresence of Audio
And so, “Listening Habits Volume #1” – the new frontier. Well, not really or in fact at all. Welcome to a new series emanating from the reanimated Ear Nutrition. A collection of words pertaining to the human ability to create art by banging, picking and plucking various objects in sequence to form a coherent whole.
The modus operandi of this series is to celebrate the very nature of these sounds. From the legacy of the old onward to the fluidic, undulating nature of the contemporary and finally, to the frequent flashes of the emergent, all in reverence to the functional and irrevocable symbiosis of the three.
Succinctly put. The new, the old and the somewhere-in-between, communicated in written form whenever I can be bothered, as experienced by my very own lug’oles in effort to counter the mundanity-derived cognitive atrophy I’ve experienced since bining this off!
Oh The Humanity! – Ground To Dust
January 2025
Melodic Hardcore / Skate Punk
This was the album that ignited the need for me to do this again and thus, was inexorably set to begin these volumes of “Listening Habits“. It’s ubiquity in my ear canal over 2025 was guaranteed with skilful immediacy after my first listen was complete with the finalising words – do what you love before time takes it from you – almost haunting me into at least making some semblance of motion towards sorting-my-fucking-life out. Ground To Dust excels at the emotionally available, self-aware “life-punk” that seems to be innate to Oh The Humanity! An intrinsic aspect of their collective core that has itself been through its own journey since the band’s formation and subsequently flawless, in my opinion, back catalogue.
A backbone of early 2000s’ adjacent Melodic Hardcore, a dalliance with the Post-Hardcore and Emo of that era, and a forthright, substantive and indeed substantiating commitment to the efficacy and fluidity of contemporary Skate Punk as a viably evocative stalwart of relevance, heart, conviction and catharsis either side of personal or sociopolitical commentary. That is what their eponymous self-titled espoused and what Ground To Dust has beyond perfected. I should also mention that A Wilhelm Scream‘s own Trevor Reily had a hand in this album’s creation, a fact that truly speaks for itself.
My favourite album of 2025 is still my favourite album in 2026. See you at Manchester Punk Festival!
Scowl – Are We All Angels
April 2025
Alternative Rock / Punk-Rock / Hardcore Punk
The evolution of Hardcore bands into entities, hybridised or otherwise, is a tale as old as the genre itself. It would then be reasonable to assume that this would be understood within the greater scene. Reasonable in assumption, yes, but what detractors from this logical occurrence often forget, is that some of the most seminal greater-Punk-scene releases are subject to this. It is how flowers grow, a dance routine rooted in the very flower bed itself and can, if left to germinate for just enough time, produce a masterstroke.
Scowl did exactly that with Are We All Angels. Plus, after the perfection of the stepping stone that is Psychic Dance Routine, I find it difficult to believe that this “jump” wasnt relatively obvious. However, whether it was or it wasn’t, the depth of the album’s songwriting, delivery and sojourn amongst soundscapes away from their – but not entirely – layer of Hardcore Punk is as natural as it possibly could sound. The band’s flirtation and (often live) adoration of the Ramones is worn for all to bop and is far from simply a lounge act of pounding, often Grunge-adjacent Alternative Rock; itself almost a springboard of riffery from which to tease the core of their past.
I could go on for far longer as to why this is such a rotation in my listening habits but you’re not here for a tome.
And to close – what a banger this one is.
Bad Religion – The Process of Belief
January 2002
Melodic Hardcore / Skate Punk / Punk-Rock
The debate on which Bad Religion album is superior shall surely outlast the very band itself. It is one that I am not here to engage in too ardently, bar a concise campaign of quasi-proselytisation entirely localised within this volume of “Listening Habits” with the goal to suggest that The Process of Belief is a contender for such a prestigious attribute.
Every Bad Religion release has its merits, and people, by nature, have preference, but with 2002’s so-attested designation as the “comeback” recording being but a digital amble away through online opinion-scape, I thought I’d add to the discourse. Not only is it lyrically some of the band’s best at word-value but TPOB’s pertinence is ageless given this troublesome timeline. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it would feature without fail on any prospective cherry-picked list set to entice and initiate the unaware into the band’s forty-plus year output.
Aside from its topical prowess, TPOB’s refined BR-brand Melodic Hardcore, “Skate Punk” and riff-heavy mid-tempo bouts are perfectly balanced, showcasing the best of each, with particular emphasis to the likes of ‘Broken’ and the pure-form career-defining slow-song canon of ‘The Defence’. The album’s production is another integral aspect, allowing what I believe to be the metaphorical drupe on top, cementing this timeless addition to the catalogue – that being the indomitably syncretic guitars of Hetson, Gurewitz and Baker.
TPOB also spawned one of the best and somewhat lesser-known bonus tracks (included on the Australian and Japanese versions of the album, as well as on the ‘Broken’ Single) – in the form of ‘Shattered Faith’.
Crime In Stereo – The Trouble Stateside
April 2006
Melodic Hardcore / Skate Punk / Punk-Rock
Since releasing this in 2006, Crime In Stereo have become an utter powerhouse of Progressive Punk. Through an interconnected web of Post-Punk, Post-Hardcore and whatever else was required, the band’s post-stateside output stands as yet another creative testament to the progression that Hardcore can act as the progenitor for. The Trouble Stateside is very much, I would argue, a key moment in this eclectic journey.
Crime in Stereo are a band fed by a self-perpetuating catharsis, one subject to the scientifically denoted rule that energy cannot be outright destroyed, only repurposed. Such a rule fits both what would come later but also in 2006, when the band would shift toward a sound more melodious sound verging on Skate Punk but crucially in their own continuity, hinting, albeit incrementally, at climes more progressive.
The band’s enveloping lyrical imagery significantly lengthened its stride on TTS. The shift toward this Skate Punk-imbued sound acts as an intermediary and facilitator for an array of masterfully alternated tempos and stark dynamic shifts supplemented with increasingly creative guitar work, cementing them as a force in the realm of early 2000s’ Melodic Hardcore as much as it did just about anything they would later achieve. Notably, the same aura present innate to this 2006 entry is still felt within the 2023 album House & Trance and its precursors, despite such sonic differentiation, showcasing that the band are still just Crime-In-fucking-Stereo in the purest, emphatically truest form.
‘If I apologize for the swift and sudden rise
In the recurring themes of love and God and war
Will you make amends for the way we all pretend
These aren’t the things we think about
When we can’t think about our jobs anymore?’
TØRSÖ- ‘Home Wrecked’ (Single/7″)
January 2021
Hardcore Punk / D-Beat
Imagine the sheer horror and sadness I experienced late in 2025 when I discovered that, unbeknownst to me, my favourite rager of 2021 – that I was patiently awaiting a follow-up to – was the de facto final release from the best modern D-Beat band of the past *it doesn’t fucking matter*.
A 7″ that still blows my mind whenever it is utilised to contribute to my hearing loss, be it physically or digitally, ‘Home Wrecked’ was the last release from TØRSÖ. One part of a keenly abrasive discography allowed me so much catharsis during COVID-lockdowns and though, as effectively stated, such did indeed quantify and result in the all too real pain of the music devotee – the music itself is immortal.
Providing a live-tracked salvo comprised of two originals and a cover, this 7″ is insurmountable. The opening two-stage (two-step?) intro and bit-chomping riff of ‘Home Wrecked’ alone twists a struggling tension into the strained, winding cord of a crossbow that nears the point of shatter prior to releasing an impossibly powerful quarrel perforating everything in its path. Having said that, the very best accolade that this 7″ has is that each of its three blasts produces the same effect sequentially over its five-minute duration.
Do you remember the aforementioned horror and sadness I mentioned? Well, it was true and until about five minutes ago when I discovered the band are apparently playing at C.Y.Fest in California in 2026. Watch this space, I suppose!
That, in no particular order or origin bar a rough list and the revival of a previously present whim to prattle on about these releases, was “Listening Habits Volume #1”.
See you at the next one, whenever that will be – NO REQUESTS! NO MASTERS!
